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Comment by romwell | Hacker News Reader

>Hey, I built a 40 year career on 'fake it until you have to leave or learn how to make it' -So don't knock this

This comments illustrates the article, which has nothing to do with "fake it till you make it", and is all about how people often think they know something, when, in fact, they have little knowledge on the subject (in this case, the subject being the article in question).

To clarify: "fake it till you make it" is pretending you know something when you know you don't, the exact opposite of what the article is about (not knowing that you really don't know something, and being confident that you do).

Not to knock the OP (hey, we all go straight into the comments from time to time) :)

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I don't think 'fake it till you make it' is as simple as that. The whole thing about imposter syndrome is that plenty of fully competent people 'know' they are incompetent (and conversely plenty of incompetent ones 'know' that they are the most valuable employee in the company.) Therefore, 'fake it till you make it' isn't directly about basically being a fraud, it's about presenting yourself as the competent professional you (hopefully) pretty much are.

Or, at least, the realisation that everyone else is probably faking it too.

Well, what about the rockstar junior devs who whipped fully functional applications who are later humbled with experiences and cringes at their previously ego-maniacally written code? I was one, and I wouldn't say I was aware of my mistakes, I definitely believed my code was superior (early 20s at the time)

To be fair to the grandparent comment, some of the examples in the article could be interpreted as 'faking it 'til you make it'.

What's most interesting is the nuance of what 'faking it' really means. The woman making up a whole narrative about 'Tonya and the Hardings' - was she thinking 'shit, I know nothing about this band but I like the idea of being on TV so I'm going to make up some lies and hope the conversation moves on to something else'. Or did she genuinely in that moment believe that she knew of this band?

Both seem sort of unlikely, yet one of them has to be true (or a combination of them - as long as you discount the possibility of her being a shill or realising it's a joke and playing along for fun).

There's also some interesting self-selection bias going on - by standing on a street with a microphone you're only going to get people who are more extroverted. Perhaps that's linked with willingness to 'fake it'.

I just find this stuff fascinating.

Faking something is the opposite from truly thinking it - in theory. In practice, faking something with ourward confidence, when met with success, sooner or later builds the confidence inside you as well. Human psychology isn't rational.

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