I’ve seen the work of others.
It goes like this nowadays: “Hahah, I fooled these suckers into hiring me”
Success has nothing to do with being smart. All accomplishments are the product of dedication and effort, to varying degrees, in incremental steps. The starting conditions are not equal either.
“Everyone knows something. Nobody knows everything.” If you focus on what you don’t know, ofc you will not feel smart. But you know something, so focus on that. Even if it’s not directly relevant, a lot of advances are made by taking ideas from a similar discipline and applying them to a current problem.
The good news is you don’t have Dunning-Kruger.
You seem to be suffering from imposter syndrome. Step 1 is to understand that we’re all just winging it.
Are you getting the job done? Plenty of people you perceive as smarter than you are not getting the job done.
I guess I can answer this, because I work in IT and that gives me the opportunity to feel smarter than people regularly. And despite also feeling like a moron regularly, the curse of competence tells me the imposter syndrome is bullshit.
Wait you guys are having success?
Everyone, including you (and me ofc), is dumb AF but in different ways.
“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
Be curious, not comfortable. Never stop learning from those who are smarter than you.
“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
Yes. I’ve been the “smartest” person in the room once or twice, during a crisis. It sucks!
Edit: And by “smartest” I just mean “only one in that room remotely qualified to plan our response to the current crisis.”
I don’t actually believe “smartest” exists.
There’s just who has the experience most needed in the current moment.
We tend to call that person “smart”.
Of course. You wouldn’t judge an elephant by its ability to climb trees, etc etc
“Success” is relative. Don’t believe the lie that you have to have lots of money and stuff to be successful.
Also, I’ve heard it said, “if you find yourself in a room where you’re the smartest person, you’re in the wrong room.”
I’ve been very fortunate, at times, to work with people who were incredibly good at their jobs or just wise people in general. I don’t think any of those people saw themselves as anything special. They just knew something I didn’t and were happy to share. I learned a lot from them. But I have so much more to learn. I’m ok with that. It keeps things interesting.
Why would someone “less smart” not deserve success?
depends
exhibit A: rfk jr
Arfkjr.
preparation and luck or nepotism
Get out of your stem bubble (Lemmy being one), do some local sport or activity where there is actual social mixing. You will notice the gap between your bubble and people who barely finished highschool. For me the gap is rather having the privilege to be educated to abstraction rather than being smart (~ IQ). Being able to manage abstraction better is often why you are better paid in STEM.
Your pay check is all the justification you need.
I reminder my team of this frequently.
People don’t just give money away easily. You’ve earned that paycheck.
