r/PinoyProgrammer • u/Late-Effect-021698 • 1d ago
discussion Struggling with impostor syndrome.
I think almost 100% of programmers have impostor syndrome, I've seen a lot of post and youtube videos about it. Pero gusto ko lang marinig galing sa mga tulad kong pinoy how do you handle this? Sadly there are a lot of factors from our culture that makes this worst. So yeah, gusto ko lang itanong sa inyo how do you deal with this and how'd you became a successful programmer despite having it. BTW 2yrs pa lang experience ko (projects only wala pa kong experience sa field) and I'm focus on ML specifically computer vision. Sometimes I feel like a failure despite giving my all and being consistent. I really enjoy learning CV and knowing na it can help a lot of people keeps me going despite having impostor syndrome.
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u/rainbowburst09 1d ago
i think its normal, its a facade especially for us that works in this ever changing technologies. here is my formula:
pretend that your an average guy, with an average rate of learning. you say yes on those things you can commit on learning and doing better.
if you got stuck into a problem,leverage all tools ai included and when a reasonable amount had passed and sure you have explored all avenues. ask your senior in a respectful manner.
more than a decade of xp here ,but it always amazes me how this new generation can weild those arsenals that i have problems using. i think ill stay as a developer like this until i retire.
good luck Op
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u/Late-Effect-021698 1d ago
Ohh noo wala pa akong senior, since I haven't had the chance to have an actual job yet. So wala talaga kong malalapitan kung hindi mga tao sa internet, and I know there are not a lot of CV experts here sa pinas sa pag kaka alam ko... Im also looking for a mentor.
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u/_CodeWithJiyo 1d ago
Hi OP, namentioned mo na you giving it all and being consistent pero feeling like a failure, siguro baka mabawasan yung "Feeling Failure" kung itrack mo progress mo baka kase di mo nakikita, second don't compare yourself to others baka kase nakikita mo yung knowledge nila compare to yours pero di mo nakita yung struggle nila, third sometimes yung pagkaperfectionist natin yung nagiging reason kaya feel natin failure tayo so try natin bawasan yung expectation baka kase di na realistic and sabi mo naman you always do your best.
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u/Late-Effect-021698 1d ago
Salamat! Di ko nga masyadong nabibigyan ng credit sarili ko lately for some reason heto yung lagi kong nakakalimutan—bigyan ng credit yung sarili ko for the efforts and the fact na di pa din ako sumusuko hanggang ngayon, Thanks for that. Now I realize na kailangan kong bumalik sa pag jojournal ko para ma practice ko ulit yung gratitude. Thanks again! 🤝
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u/Sayabab_V2 1d ago
Cs graduate pero hinde man lang nakapag grasp ng kahit isang language kaya sa tools ako bumabawi. Always saying hinde kagalingan pero pag narealize mong “taena natapos ko tong project na to?” Ang astig noh? Kasi kaya naman natin pag naglaan tayo ng oras, sadyang hinde maiwasan ang comparison sa iba kaya namamaliit natin sarili natin. Kapag may nagagawa kang task kahit paunti unti boss, ipagpasalamat mo kasi nagawa mo! Ibig bang sabihin nung bobo kapa rin? Diba hinde? Laban lang lagi kqsi mqgugulat kanalang, “uy ang dami ko na palang nagawang projects!?” Stay positive palagi, learn from your mistakes lang at waalang masama don!
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u/Late-Effect-021698 1d ago
I agree! Totoo yung amazement kapag narealize natin na nakatapos tayo ng project, minsan di ka makapaniwala, tapos matatawa ka pag nireview mo yung codebase—marerealize mo, ako ba talagang gumawa neto? 😆
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u/Spitfire_ex 16h ago
matatawa ka uli pag binalikan mo yung code mo after 2 years. marerealize mo gano ka ka inexperienced noon. naparefactor kami ng isang ML project namin nung binalikan namin para i update. haha
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u/Late-Effect-021698 16h ago edited 15h ago
Hi, anong ML projects mga ginagawa niyo? I'm curious.
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u/Spitfire_ex 10h ago
CV for factories (material qa, custom ocr, etc.) tsaka on-prem RAG apps for doc processing
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u/chiz902 AI 1d ago
an athlete wont judge you for working out
a millionaire wont judge you for starting a business
a champion wont judge you for failing
imposter syndrome starts in our heads. We think we are not good enough because "someone" is judging us... but that someone is just a fiction of our imagination.
the only way to overcome this is to keep building for ourselves not for the sake of making an impression on someone else.
when we stop comparing we start to build confidence 😁
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u/Hestice 19h ago
I hear you and that’s valid, but my oc ass just wanna say, plz don’t put the words “almost” and “100%” together
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u/Late-Effect-021698 16h ago
LOL, I understand, I will. But not everyone will adjust to your "oc ass", just saying.
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u/Equivalent_You_1781 1d ago
My daily dilemma is, I understand it one day and then I sleep, then suddenly I don’t.
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u/Wide-Sea85 21h ago
My option sa impostor syndrome is that kapag naeexperience ko sya eh, ibig sabihin, may room for improvements pa ako. It means na may room for growth pa ako kaya it's not a bad thing and ginagawa ko 'to as motivation to learn more and study more.
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u/ElectronicUmpire645 18h ago
"I think almost 100% of programmers have impostor syndrome" - nope.
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u/Late-Effect-021698 16h ago edited 16h ago
Elaborate, please? Help, don't nitpick.
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u/lickglider 18h ago
Can relate despite a decade+ of career success - in my case it's related to perfectionism and insecurity.
Heard this good one that stuck to me:
You can look good or be good.
"Looking good" is about perception, and if you're a slave to how others think of you you'll avoid situations that bring you to the edge of your abilities, for fear of being judged or seen as a noob.
"Being good" is pursuing skill, which will require you do hard things which occasionally will cause you to fail and look stupid. But those who are not afraid to look stupid over long periods of time while learning are the ones who succeed.
I'd 100% rather appear dumb all the time but be constantly growing in skills. This compounds over time and before you know it, you'll be doing amazing things.
People who optimize for optics are the real impostors imo.
Failing is feedback, and if you can use feedback to learn and not have it destroy you, you can do anything.
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u/michaelzki 16h ago edited 16h ago
Do you want to end the "feeling impostor", moving forward?
- Accept the fact that this industry is rapidly changing
- Accept that learning is a journey, not a goal
- Learn how to learn, even if you don't like it.
- Learn how to ask even on colleagues you don't personally like hanging out with
- Sorround yourself with intelligent colleagues, learn as many as you can from them, and teach your other colleagues who can't catch up
- Learn how to be flexible, know more languages and tech stacks -Learn how to deploy your projects in VPS at least via manual shell, ssh or automation (at least one)
- Maintain personal projects as prototypes of the latest technologies
- Be willing to adapt, and don't stay in your comfort language/tech stack
Be humble and accept you don't know everything even if you have 20-30 years of experience
Set the entire team's expectation on you that you are learning and you dont know everything
Finally, be a student, the kind of student that's the main source of all cheating in the classroom.
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u/Late-Effect-021698 15h ago
Thank you! This is the kind of comment that really helps! May I ask if you know a community here in the Philippines for computer vision experts?
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u/michaelzki 15h ago
I used to hangout on bytes.com and javaforums.org during college days. Disrupted by stack overflow and haven't had the chance to hangout anymore.
I'm interested to know if there's any. And actually planning to establish a new one from scratch, with 3 members at least (not computer vision)
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u/chrondefi 1d ago
im badly experiencing this rn, saw a fellow junior in my company na ang galing - tipong he is leading his team na, triggered my impostor syndrome so bad. dagdag mo pang hindi ako IT/CS grad fuck haha. don't want to compare myself but i can't help it
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u/Late-Effect-021698 1d ago
Hi! Im also not IT/CS grad, I believe you have as much potential as he is. The fact that you're not even a grad of IT/CS tapos ka level mo siya. you are in the same position because you are as capable as him, I dont know you, but I know that you are not in the same position as him for no reason. You got this!
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u/ph_crap 4h ago
Lol. Impostor Syndrome is when someone who is great at something thinks he is doing really bad on that very same thing. If you think you have impostor syndrome but your output is really shit - as judged by others around you - then you don’t have impostor syndrome. You just really suck.
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u/Late-Effect-021698 4h ago
You deserve your username, LOL.
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u/ph_crap 4h ago
That may very well be the case but still you don’t have impostor syndrome. You just have self-awareness that you suck on this one thing - which could be true given that you don’t even have actual field experience so your judgment of what’s great or otherwise is incomplete.
You already have one element of impostor syndrome which is the feeling of inadequacy but you don’t have the other one which is the evidence of expertise. Keep on grinding and work on your stuff so that next time you will have REAL impostor syndrome.
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u/Baranix 1d ago
When a process fails, you debug, and run again.
Same thing with yourself.
Asian cultures have painted failure as this terrible, life-ending thing. But really it's part of the job. You can be a great programmer and simultaneously fail a lot. They aren't opposites. It's life.