Most starting programmers are familiar with the concept of "imposter syndrome."

You learn a bunch of concepts, build some projects, and somehow pass an interview, convincing someone to give you a job. However, when you start working you realize they must've made a huge mistake...

Most of this stuff you've never seen before, or have amateur skills with, at best. Everyone around you is confidently plowing through the work, their screen looking like an 80's movie computer hacker scene, meanwhile you're clicking around, looking like this is your first time using a mouse.

Your brain knows the truth: "You're an imposter*."

Everyone is giving you work, you're kind of figuring things out, and people tell you you're doing a good job... but really you're just pretending. These other people have things "all figured out," you're just fumbling your way through as you learn. Luckily, that feeling will soon go away.

Just kidding, it'll never go away!

That is, it will never go away if you continue to grow as a person. That feeling comes from embarking into new territory, understanding how much there is you don't know, and pushing yourself to take action until you figure it out. Once you've figured it out... find the next thing, rinse, cycle, repeat.

The message here is a bit of a contradiction**:

• Everyone is an imposter***
• No one is an imposter, because everyone is an imposter

Life's complicated, we're all "pretending" to be capable at things until we master them, and we'll never master everything. If you're challenging yourself and learning from smart people, you'll be a lifelong imposter.

So that's the tldr behind the site name. I've been an imposter in many areas already, and plan on being an imposter as I explore many more interests - blogging, meditation, education, programming, conversations, etc. I don't quite know what I'm doing, but excited to jump in and figure things out along the way. Try it out too - jump in, embrace the uncertainty, and enjoy the process!

*impostor using the more common spelling, but that site was taken, so...
**which is fine, since I'm an imposter at writing
***especially kids, they're the worst. Just copying people all day, until eventually they grow up and hope no one notices they're just a collection of behaviors they've stolen