Imposter Syndrome – A Different Perspective

I was sitting in my former office with one of my direct reports - a sharp, mid-level developer new to the team. As we walked through the system architecture I was developing, he paused and asked, “Do you ever suffer from imposter syndrome?”

At time, I’d genuinely never heard the term. I had to stop and ask what it meant. That was the first (and for a long time, the only) time anyone brought it up around me.

Fast-forward years later, and the phrase is everywhere, especially in tech. People talk about it constantly: the nagging feeling that you’re a fraud, that your success is luck or timing, and that any day now everyone will figure it out.

I come from an older school of thought: you either know it or you don’t. You prove it through results, not feelings. If you’re delivering, you belong. Full stop.

But let’s talk about where this “imposter” feeling often comes from. In my experience with developers, it usually ties back to not being fully immersed in the material yet, whether that’s a new language, framework, or domain. The discomfort of partial knowledge gets mistaken for evidence of inadequacy.

That reminds me of something I’ve seen play out time and again: the 75-25 rule (a close cousin to the classic Pareto Principle). It observes that roughly 25% of employees tend to drive about 75% of the real output and innovation, while the remaining 75% handle the other 25% (the maintenance, support, scaling, and day-to-day execution that keeps everything running).

At first, that split sounds harsh or unfair. But zoom out, and it makes perfect sense. The “25%” are often the deep thinkers and relentless builders who create breakthrough systems. Yet no one sustains a complex system alone; it wouldn’t be a system if they could. The broader team, the 75%, is essential for reliability, iteration, documentation, onboarding, and all the unglamorous work that turns a prototype into enterprise-grade production software.

Everyone contributes value, just in different ways and at different intensities.

Here’s the bottom line: the whole concept of “imposter syndrome” as some permanent affliction feels a bit overblown to me. We’re all constantly learning in our fields. I still look back at code I wrote six months ago (sometimes six weeks ago) and cringe at how naive it looks now. That’s not fraud, its called growth.

We’re all unfinished art, and that amazing masterpiece is still in progress. Comparing your current “phase 1” to someone else’s “phase 200” is a recipe for unnecessary self-doubt. The only fair comparison is you vs. yesterday’s you.

So my advice? Drop the label. Stop judging your progress against an impossible highlight reel. Just keep going. Keep shipping. Keep learning. Keep being authentically you.

Because if you’re showing up, putting in the work, and delivering value, even if it’s not always flashy, you’re not an imposter.

You're part of a team.

You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Just keep swimming.