In the context of discussing impostor syndrome, there can be a deeper discussion of exactly how to deal with it. Several effective ways can be suggested to the audience. For example, it is possible to advise not to compare oneself with other people. It makes sense to compare oneself only with what has been learned, what has been studied, what has improved, and vice versa, what has regressed in a conditional six months (Stucky, 2020). It sounds easy, but it is more difficult to do: a person automatically pays attention to the fact that someone has succeeded somewhere, and he has not (Breeze, 2018). It turns out that sometimes it is simply impossible to avoid comparing oneself with others. Therefore, as the next topic for discussion, it is possible to offer a breakdown of coping with this. Here hosts can give listeners examples of how to compare oneself with others more environmentally friendly to the psyche if it is impossible to avoid it. For example, comparing oneself to Elon Musk, who now has a Tesla flying somewhere in space, will objectively do nothing.
If one is going to compare, then it has to be at comparable intervals. For example, what did the idol do when he was at the level of development that man is at now. It is also absolutely useless for competence awareness to compare oneself with stars from a completely different field. However, if one is drawn to them, podcast hosts can advise taking the example of Thomas Edison, who, an incredible number of times, tried to create a light bulb and did not admit a failure (Sajni, 2017). Imagine if he, Musk, or Gates had been stricken with impostor syndrome, and they would have sat quietly in Zoom conferences and kept their heads down. Another topic for discussion could be the definition of an expert. After all, people with impostor syndrome often see everyone around them as an expert, except for themselves.
It is worth pointing out that an expert is not someone who knows absolutely everything about a subject. Yes, he must understand the underlying fundamentals, but the details sometimes need to be studied separately and his knowledge updated. This is what happens in a world where the flow of information is not static and changeable. Moreover, globally, people may not understand what they are doing, getting bogged down in operational processes. It is not a fact that a Ph.D. knows more than a person with impostor syndrome.
In this context, a podcast can also debunk the famous misconception, “I don’t know what I’m doing well – I’m not an expert.” One only has to think back to the scandal in August, when it turned out that even top Google executives did not quite understand what they were doing. Nevertheless, they work for one of the world’s largest corporations. Besides, it is appropriate to remind listeners of the well-known fact that 90% of start-ups fail (Slank, 2019). Worrying about lack of information and knowledge is partly related to the newfangled term fear of missing out (Mullangi and Jagsi, 2019, p. 404). It makes a person keep track of everything and end up overloaded with information. It would be best if podcast hosts got the word out that this is an unhealthy bias, and maybe someone on the other side of the screen will triumph over their impostor syndrome.
Reference List
Breeze, M. (2018) ‘Imposter syndrome as a public feeling’, in Taylor, Y.and Lahad, K. (eds). Feeling academic in the neoliberal university. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 191-219.
Mullangi, S. and Jagsi, R. (2019) ‘Imposter syndrome: treat the cause, not the symptom’. JAMA, 322(5), pp. 403–404.
Sajni, L. (2017) ‘Jumping into the deep: imposter syndrome, defining success and the new librarian’. Partnership, 12(1), pp. 12-27.
Slank, S. (2019) ‘Rethinking the imposter phenomenon’. Ethical theory and moral practice, 22(1), pp. 205–218.
Stucky, C. C. (2020) ‘Changing the culture and managing imposter syndrome, in Stonnington, C. and Files, J. (eds). Burnout in women physicians. Springer, Cham, pp. 553-565.