I’m going to say something that might sound controversial, but I promise you it comes from a place of solidarity: The term "Imposter Syndrome" has done more to harm developers than to help them.
For years, we've been told that the gut-wrenching feeling of not being good enough, the anxiety that you're one pull request away from being exposed as a fraud, is a syndrome. A psychological condition that resides within you. The solution, we're told, is to "fight it," to build confidence, to journal, to affirm our own worth.
What if we've been looking at it backwards?
What if that feeling isn't a pathology? What if it's a perfectly rational, healthy, and even intelligent response to the environment we work in?
Let me explain.
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The "Syndrome" of Working in a Complex Field
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Think about what we do for a living. The landscape of software development changes not yearly, but monthly. A framework you mastered last quarter is now legacy. A "best practice" from six months ago is now an anti-pattern. The sheer volume of things you don't know grows exponentially every single day.
Feeling a sense of uncertainty in this context isn't a disorder. It's a sign of awareness. It means you understand the scope of the field. The true "imposters" are often the ones who are blissfully unaware of what they don't know, bulldozing ahead with overconfidence.
That knot in your stomach when you're given a task you've never done before? That's not a syndrome. That's the feeling of learning. It's the cognitive dissonance of stretching your brain beyond its current limits. We have mistakenly medicalized the natural discomfort of growth.
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When It's Not You, It's The System
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By calling it a "syndrome," we place the entire burden of the problem on the individual. We tell developers, "You need to fix your mindset." This conveniently lets the actual culprits off the hook. Let's reframe some common scenarios:
You're given a task with vague requirements and an impossible deadline.
- Imposter Syndrome Lens: "I'm so slow. I don't know how to do this. Everyone else would have figured it out by now."
- The Reality Lens: "This project was poorly scoped and under-resourced. My anxiety is a reasonable reaction to a poorly managed situation."
You're the only woman or person of color on a team, and your ideas are overlooked.
- Imposter Syndrome Lens: "My ideas must not be good enough. I don't belong here."
- The Reality Lens: "I am experiencing a well-documented phenomenon called 'structural bias.' My environment is failing to provide psychological safety and equal opportunity."
You're surrounded by senior engineers who use jargon you don't understand.
- Imposter Syndrome Lens: "I'm so far behind. I'm not a real engineer."
- The Reality Lens: "My team has a poor knowledge-sharing culture. The onus to bridge the communication gap shouldn't fall solely on me."
In each case, the problem isn't a faulty individual, but a faulty environment. Calling it "Imposter Syndrome" gaslights us into believing the problem is ours to solve alone, rather than demanding better from our teams, our managers, and our companies.
The Three Real Culprits (That Aren't You)
If it's not a syndrome, what is it? Often, it's one of these systemic issues:
- Toxic Hustle Culture: The constant celebration of "10x engineers" who code 80-hour weeks and have 100 side projects creates an unrealistic benchmark. Feeling inadequate next to this myth isn't a syndrome; it's a rational response to an unhealthy standard.
- Poor Onboarding and Mentorship: Being thrown into a massive, undocumented codebase and expected to perform is terrifying. Your feeling of being lost isn't a character flaw; it's a sign that your company has failed to provide a proper ramp-up process.
- Lack of Psychological Safety: If you're afraid to ask a "stupid" question or admit you don't know something for fear of being judged, you will feel like an imposter. This isn't your anxiety; it's your environment's failure to create a culture of learning.
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What Do We Call It Instead?
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Let's retire the term "imposter syndrome". It's a misdiagnosis that pathologises the learner's journey.
Instead, let's use more accurate language:
- "I'm in a steep learning phase."
- "I'm experiencing the natural discomfort of growth."
- "My workplace lacks psychological safety."
- "I am being held to an unrealistic standard."
This shift in language is powerful. It moves the problem from being an internal, personal defect to being an external, solvable challenge. It empowers you to seek the right solutions: asking for clearer requirements, requesting a mentor, or pushing back on unreasonable deadlines.
A Call for Systemic Change
This isn't just semantics. It's about accountability. By stopping the "Imposter Syndrome" narrative, we can start asking harder, more important questions:
- Managers: Are you creating an environment where it's safe to say "I don't know"?
- Senior Developers: Are you sharing your own struggles and knowledge gaps, or are you perpetuating a myth of effortless genius?
- Companies: Are your hiring practices and performance reviews rewarding unrealistic superheroics or sustainable, collaborative work?
The feeling we've been calling "Imposter Syndrome" is often just the growing pains of a competent person in a demanding, ever-changing, and sometimes poorly managed field.
You are not sick. You are not broken. You are learning. You are adapting. And your feelings are a signal that something in your environment needs to change, not that something in you is wrong.
So, I want to know what you think. Am I onto something, or am I completely off base?
Is it always 'Imposter Syndrome,' or is it sometimes just a reasonable reaction to a difficult job, a toxic environment, or the simple, overwhelming nature of our field? Share your story in the comments.
Top comments (12)
I think labelling some of your examples as "Impostor Syndrome" is using the term with an overextended remit. Impostor Syndrome is a form of anxiety, but being anxious due to circumstances is not necessarily Impostor Syndrome.
For me, I'd say I suffer from impostor syndrome in moments when I find it hard to act or make a decision, due to my feeling that others who would generally make such decisions are a lot more competent. It's a potential fallacy in which I attribute to others a heightened competence. Sometimes this is right; I'd have no relevant say in which wire to cut when defusing a bomb. That said, if there were no other choice, I'd have to do my best logically.
I think that it particularly affects developers due to some toxic elements in our culture where someone will tell you you're an idiot for using a particular pattern or framework. At the end of the day, our job is to deliver solutions to problems that work in the real world, for our actual customers, not strive for some kind of academic perfection.
If crap culture is making people anxious then it needs addressing, but I do believe that exercises that help us make decisions and be comfortable with them, given the tools and knowledge at our disposal, is helpful.
Edit: I also think a lot of toxicity comes from a demand to demonstrate excellence and to stand above others - I'd rather development be a team sport myself.
Mike, I appreciate this deeply insightful perspective. You are entirely correct that I generalized in my examples, and I thank you for returning the definition to its essence: the anxiety arising from mistakenly assigning greater competence to others
Your point is crucial: there's a difference between the clinical 'Imposter Phenomenon' (the internal feeling of fraudulence despite evidence) and the rational anxiety caused by external pressures like toxic culture or lack of mentorship. My argument is that in our industry, we often misdiagnose the latter as the former. We tell the developer who is anxious because of vague requirements or a hostile code review that they have a 'syndrome,' when in fact, their anxiety is a justified response to a bad environment.
You've perfectly identified the heart of the issue: 'If crap culture is making people anxious, then it needs addressing.' That's the systemic change I'm advocating for. The 'exercises' you mention are vital for the internal, true imposter feelings, but they become a band-aid when the problem is a broken arm. Thank you for adding this critical layer to the conversation.
Impostor syndrome is not a term that only is used in IT. So I don't think it is going to change soon.
Out of curiosity I asked an AI who coined the term. And it comes from a 1978 paper called "The Impostor Phenomenon: Experiences of Incompetence in High‑Achieving Women." by Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes.
But after all that, I agree with the ideas in this post.
That's a fantastic historical context—thank you for sharing it. You are absolutely correct. The term originated from Clance and Imes's work with high-achieving women, and it's a concept that spans many fields, not just IT.
This actually strengthens the argument for being more precise in our use of the term. Because it's a universal psychological phenomenon, we often import it into tech as a catch-all explanation for any feeling of doubt or anxiety. But the specific triggers in our industry—blazingly fast change, complex legacy systems, and often-toxic online discourse—are unique. By recognizing that the symptoms can be caused by these specific systemic issues, not just the universal internal phenomenon, we can create better, more targeted solutions for our community.
I'm not suggesting we change the term globally, but rather that we in the tech industry become more discerning in how we apply it. Thank you for bringing that crucial academic background into the discussion.
"I'm in a steep learning phase."
"My workplace lacks psychological safety."
"I am being held to an unrealistic standard."
While its true that Imposter Syndrome is attributed to more than it should be, I feel the most apt diagnosis involves your self worth, not really how other people impact you.
If you feel as though you have benefits that you don't deserve, if you feel that you receive accolades that should be better spent on others, or if your struggles with the next task makes your past work fall into background noise, everyone has varying degrees of Imposter Syndrome. The best thing to do is to do a self-analysis on the things you've accomplished and where you want to be, and strive to make it happen. I feel that when I feel demotivated, the best thing to do is to take a break, invest in decompressing the mind, and coming back revitalized.
Imposter Syndrome is easier to feel when you're burnt out, or when the environmental factors are weighing down on you.
I feel the syndrome itself is internal, whereas the triggers and risk factors are a mix of internal and external.
Justin, what a fantastic breakdown. You're absolutely right that the core feeling is internal—the struggle to internalise our own wins. Your point about burnout being a major trigger is the key that connects our perspectives! 🗝️
My goal is to ensure we don't only look inward. Before we prescribe 'build more self-confidence', we should diagnose 'is the environment burning this person out?' Your strategy of self-analysis and communication is the perfect tool for the internal side of the fight. Thanks for this thoughtful contribution!
Totally agree with your perspective. 👏 I think it’s really important, though, to remember that impostor syndrome is a broader concept. Sometimes a developer (or anyone, really) can be respected, trusted for their input, objectively doing great work — and still feel, deep down, that they’re not good enough, that the praise they get is undeserved, and that they’re one step away from being “found out.”
That’s the version of impostor syndrome I believe is still worth addressing — not to “fix” the person, but to help them unlock their full potential without the constant fear of not being enough. The systemic issues you mentioned are real, and shifting the environment matters a lot. But so does supporting people in overcoming that internalized self-doubt when it does happen, even in healthy environments.
Both angles can coexist — and both deserve attention.
Sylwia, this is a wonderfully even and essential viewpoint. Thank you very much. You are entirely right. I may have swung the pendulum too far in the other direction to make a point.
The internal version of imposter syndrome—that deep-seated, sometimes irrational voice of self-doubt that persists even in healthy environments—is very real and deserves compassion and support. It would be a grave error to ignore that individuals may need tools and strategies to 'build self-trust', as you said.
My goal was not to dismiss that internal struggle but to argue that we must first rule out the systemic and environmental factors before concluding it's solely an internal issue. As you so perfectly state, 'Both angles can coexist—and both deserve attention.'
We need to create systems that don't cause these feelings while also supporting individuals who experience them regardless. Thank you for adding this essential layer of nuance and ensuring the conversation is inclusive of both realities ⚖️.
This is a solid take — and honestly, overdue.
The term “imposter syndrome” has been recycled so many times that it’s lost the nuance of what people are actually experiencing. I like your reframing: it’s often a context issue, not a confidence issue.
I’ve seen the same pattern in tech teams I’ve worked with — smart, capable engineers doubting themselves because the environment is chaotic, inconsistent, or quietly competitive. That’s not a mental condition; that’s a systemic feedback loop that keeps reproducing burnout.
The part that resonates most for me is your point about language. Once we stop calling it a “syndrome,” we stop blaming the individual and start fixing the architecture — communication, onboarding, mentorship, culture.
Still, as Sylwia mentioned, there is an internal version worth addressing — those quiet voices of self-doubt that remain even in healthy teams. I think both realities coexist:
Internal: building self-trust and reflection habits
External: building safer, saner systems
Call it whatever we want, but yeah — it’s not a syndrome when the system is the problem.
Thank you! You've absolutely nailed the summary: 'It’s often a context issue, not a confidence issue.' And 'systemic feedback loop that keeps reproducing burnout' – oof, that's the painful truth right there. Let's fix the architecture, not just the occupant. 🙌
Nice and concise breakdown love how you included both single and multi-thread numbers with context. The takeaway about EX44’s price to performance sweet spot is super useful for anyone balancing budget and compute.
This is such a wonderful article. I was told a long time ago "the only people you actually need to watch out for are the people who don't have imposter syndrome." I think an awareness and humility is so important in our very complex field.