The problem of imposter syndrome (under-estimating yourself) and Dunning-Krueger (over-estimating yourself) are both addressed by Talking To Other People so you can revise your self-estimates. I think people don’t talk to other people enough, and aren’t really listening properly.

Listen to a dozen other people talk about their problems. really listen. it’ll cure your imposter syndrome. people feel like imposters not because they don’t know themselves, but because they don’t know how to relate themselves to other people.

I’m not saying “ask other people to estimate you”, I’m saying, “ask other people how they estimate themselves”! If you haven’t earned their trust they might not be entirely honest, and even if they trust you there’s always some signal loss in transmission, but that information is still hugely valuable.

No amount of private introspection can help you with a problem that stems from a lack of knowledge of the interiority of other people.

One good way to “bootstrap” this is to read! people throughout history have written copious amounts of deep, intimate, honest, heartbreaking confessionals. Montaigne, for eg, deeply moved Emerson and Nietzsche in turn. This is what art is *for*. What it’s all about. Literature, music, painting. It’s about bridging loneliness between people. About staving off isolation. About sharing parts of ourselves with one another. Conveying our interiority. Seeing and really *feeling* that we are not alone.

The solution to our own problems, as always, is to give a shit about somebody else. go ask an old friend how they’re doing. ❤️