the men are raging egomaniacs, especially the older they are, whereas the women, regardless of generation, are normal people who doubt themselves more than the men seem to

Oh, yeah. I’m a college professor, and over the years a good proportion of my colleagues have told me, as I’ve told them, about feeling like an impostor. Someone could say to us, “Look, you have a Ph.D. from one of the top schools in the country, and in your late 20s or early 30s you’ve gotten one of a handful of…

It doesn’t help that when you have a terminal degree people think you know everything about a given subject. The general public will treat you with disdain if you can’t answer the most bizarre question if they think it pertains to your field. And saying “that’s not really my area of expertise” doesn’t seem to satisfy…

I’m 30. I have a moderately successful career, own a home in a nice neighborhood and very little debt (even my mortgage is really low). My hair is 50% grey. I buy art from galleries. I have an extensive collection of good wine and a fully stocked bar that doesn’t get drained every weekend. I’m married to someone who…

Even at 31, it bugs me too when people refer to themselves as old. I know I’m not old. A 25 year old friend of mine feels same way about her life/career as I do but has decided it’s too late for a career change which is what I’m trying to do. I want to shake her by the shoulders!

Oh I have. Telling someone who has expressed an anxiety to “get over it”, is my pet peeve. Problems are relative and everyone is entitled to their own. Good luck with your job search!

That is...oddly comforting?

This color. Tho you may have given me an idea for an etsy store...

Same! The older I got, the more I felt like there weren’t really all that many “supposed tos.” We’re supposed to be decent human beings and treat each other as we wish to be treated. That’s... about it, really!

Omg optimism pisses me off.

What about cat hair. I am rich in orange cat hair.

At 49, I definitely remember worrying in my 20s about whether or not I’d have anything significant accomplished by 30. This is no new thing.

Just last week, in rehearsal, my conductor handed out a jazz music chart and proceeded to ask questions like, “now, what key is this c7 diminished minor chord actually in?” and the cellist answered and everyone nodded in my quartet and I was like, “PANIC PANIC WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS HE TALKING ABOUT I SUCK HOW AM I…

I don’t mean this in anyway to belittle how you’re feeling, in fact the opposite because I read your comment and think “she’s got her life together and on track and at so young”.

Jesus, fucking marketing has really worked hasn’t it? I honestly don’t know when all this “wahh, I’m scawed, 30 is so Old!” started.

I just want to thank you for writing this. I literally just had a meltdown about an hour ago on my mom’s couch because I feel like I’m still so dependent on my parents in so many ways when I should be completely independent and “being an adult.” I am 24. I’ve been a high school teacher since I graduated college two…

So, one of the things I learned while tripping on acid in college was that insecurity is part of the universal human condition.

I am in my late twenties and I work in academia (I am a woman) and I generally move between feeling like the biggest fraud who ever blagged her way into an academic job and furiously defending my accomplishments to (often male) colleagues who dare to trivialize my work.

I thought the premise of this article, based on the headline, would be something like:

Maybe I don’t have impostor syndrome due to my gender, but that doesn’t make the headline of this piece true. No one thinks impostor syndrome is an actual clinical issue. That it’s so common as to be normal doesn’t make it not a problem.