“Hey Dr. Adviser, I’m experiencing impostor syndrome. Are you familiar with the idea, and do you sometimes get it, too?”
“Hey Candidate Smith in another PhD program, I’m experiencing impostor syndrome. Are you familiar with the idea, and do you sometimes get it, too?”
Post the kernel of your thesis on LW frontpage. People will think it’s neat.
Google “PhD impostor syndrome” and click on the first link you see from a person who’s famous to you.
Use your research skills and free access to zillions of journals to spend one hour looking at the best research on the syndrome; see what worked for people in studies.
Jog two miles.
Leave the house.
Call the campus mental health center and make an appointment.
See what your health insurance covers, and who accepts it, and make an appointment with a psychologist who’s a “Dr.”—and therefore has a PhD and probably went through it, too!
Work at a coffee shop.
Keep a CBT-style journal of all the impostory thoughts you have, maybe one page per thought-type, and just make a note of the thought, the date you had it, and what thought you wish you’d have instead.
Get with a CBT professional (even a “lowly” LCSW can help with this) and do the work every day for six months.
Get a smaller article published in a trade journal.
Go to a conference...once that’s possible.
Get a hobby that you can use to partially define yourself, so even if you feel like an impostor PhD person, you can feel like a real...up-and-coming powerlifter, or something. (can you tell I think exercise and fitness are major components of all mental health angles)
Write a book of poetry about your impostor syndrome.
Consider, “Would I let this impostor-syndrome-voice jerk in my head live rent-free in my apartment? So why in my head?”
Impostor syndrome subreddit.
Join a union/org/etc of PhD candidates and talk to them about it.
Spend time turning your thesis into concrete subsections and just hammer away at one until you finish. Voila, you accomplished something concrete. What impostor could do that?
Develop an oracle AGI and ask it what to do. Please solve AI safety first.
Call your parents and ask them about their impostor syndrome.
Talk to GPT-3 about it.
Talk to ELIZA the chatbot about it.
Do this babble challenge.
Set a five-minute timer to write down “all the reasons why my impostor syndrome voice is wrong about me”.
Consult with a BDSM professional to see if they have any helpful, uh, methods. Seems like a lot of their clients are high-flying professional people.
Develop actual AGI so that everyone you work with is equally impostory, relative to the AGI, in your area of study. Please solve AI safety first.
Take advantage of placebo effects—I bet a few magic spells to banish impostor syndrome would have some effect even if you explicitly did not believe in magic. Burn sage, hit yourself with a tulip, whatever.
Have a conversation with your impostor syndrome and write down what it tells you. Take an outside view of these thoughts, or ask your friend for one.
Re-read up on cognitive distortions and biases and see how they might be playing into your syndrome. I’m 80% confident that if you can recognize that some of what you’re experiencing is impostor syndrome, then at least three distortions/biases will resonate with you.
Ten minutes in the sauna.
Take a month off from alcohol; observe effects.
Offer free tutoring to a struggling but bright undergrad. See, you understand your subject so well, you can explain it to a struggling but bright undergrad.
Five-minute timer: the ways in which your thesis will contribute to advancing your field.
Spend 30 minutes in front of the sun or a sun lamp.
Stay up for 36 hours—does it change? maybe it’s depression-mediated? Cf. recent Astral Codex Ten called “Sleep Is the Mate of Death”.
Lexapro 10mg
Interrogate your impostor syndrome like it’s an al Qaeda operative in the 24 hours after 9/11, before we all started thinking hard about the ethics of torture. Imagine waterboarding it. Dehumanize it. It’s trying to make you fail. How many seconds of waterboarding could it tolerate before it gives up and admits that you’re doing fine?
Tweet something at Elon Musk. Maybe he’ll respond in some zany way that will make you chuckle but also be slightly concerned.
Adopt a dog/cat/two rats.
Use outside-view thinking to come up with a daily schedule broken down into Pomodoros. Pretend you are your own manager and structure it like you would for a subordinate. Maybe the lack of structure in PhD life is bothering you.
Outside-view an update on the following claim: “I got this far despite being a fraud.”
Start tracking your work time in .25-hour increments. Maybe you’re underestimating how much you get done.
Start a literature review club with your colleagues. Volunteer to lead the first session.
Post on a subreddit about your topic. Get a possibly net-unhealthy benefit from seeing Internet points roll in.
Ask your advisor for a quarterly progress review.
Marijuana edibles.
Supposedly 30 minutes playing a musical instrument has outsized benefits on wellbeing. :::
I put on my robe and Babble Challenge hat.
Do ten push-ups.
“Hey Dr. Adviser, I’m experiencing impostor syndrome. Are you familiar with the idea, and do you sometimes get it, too?”
“Hey Candidate Smith in another PhD program, I’m experiencing impostor syndrome. Are you familiar with the idea, and do you sometimes get it, too?”
Post the kernel of your thesis on LW frontpage. People will think it’s neat.
Google “PhD impostor syndrome” and click on the first link you see from a person who’s famous to you.
Use your research skills and free access to zillions of journals to spend one hour looking at the best research on the syndrome; see what worked for people in studies.
Jog two miles.
Leave the house.
Call the campus mental health center and make an appointment.
See what your health insurance covers, and who accepts it, and make an appointment with a psychologist who’s a “Dr.”—and therefore has a PhD and probably went through it, too!
Work at a coffee shop.
Keep a CBT-style journal of all the impostory thoughts you have, maybe one page per thought-type, and just make a note of the thought, the date you had it, and what thought you wish you’d have instead.
Get with a CBT professional (even a “lowly” LCSW can help with this) and do the work every day for six months.
Get a smaller article published in a trade journal.
Go to a conference...once that’s possible.
Get a hobby that you can use to partially define yourself, so even if you feel like an impostor PhD person, you can feel like a real...up-and-coming powerlifter, or something. (can you tell I think exercise and fitness are major components of all mental health angles)
Write a book of poetry about your impostor syndrome.
Consider, “Would I let this impostor-syndrome-voice jerk in my head live rent-free in my apartment? So why in my head?”
Impostor syndrome subreddit.
Join a union/org/etc of PhD candidates and talk to them about it.
Spend time turning your thesis into concrete subsections and just hammer away at one until you finish. Voila, you accomplished something concrete. What impostor could do that?
Develop an oracle AGI and ask it what to do. Please solve AI safety first.
Call your parents and ask them about their impostor syndrome.
Talk to GPT-3 about it.
Talk to ELIZA the chatbot about it.
Do this babble challenge.
Set a five-minute timer to write down “all the reasons why my impostor syndrome voice is wrong about me”.
Consult with a BDSM professional to see if they have any helpful, uh, methods. Seems like a lot of their clients are high-flying professional people.
Develop actual AGI so that everyone you work with is equally impostory, relative to the AGI, in your area of study. Please solve AI safety first.
Take advantage of placebo effects—I bet a few magic spells to banish impostor syndrome would have some effect even if you explicitly did not believe in magic. Burn sage, hit yourself with a tulip, whatever.
Have a conversation with your impostor syndrome and write down what it tells you. Take an outside view of these thoughts, or ask your friend for one.
Re-read up on cognitive distortions and biases and see how they might be playing into your syndrome. I’m 80% confident that if you can recognize that some of what you’re experiencing is impostor syndrome, then at least three distortions/biases will resonate with you.
Ten minutes in the sauna.
Take a month off from alcohol; observe effects.
Offer free tutoring to a struggling but bright undergrad. See, you understand your subject so well, you can explain it to a struggling but bright undergrad.
Five-minute timer: the ways in which your thesis will contribute to advancing your field.
Spend 30 minutes in front of the sun or a sun lamp.
Stay up for 36 hours—does it change? maybe it’s depression-mediated? Cf. recent Astral Codex Ten called “Sleep Is the Mate of Death”.
Lexapro 10mg
Interrogate your impostor syndrome like it’s an al Qaeda operative in the 24 hours after 9/11, before we all started thinking hard about the ethics of torture. Imagine waterboarding it. Dehumanize it. It’s trying to make you fail. How many seconds of waterboarding could it tolerate before it gives up and admits that you’re doing fine?
Tweet something at Elon Musk. Maybe he’ll respond in some zany way that will make you chuckle but also be slightly concerned.
Adopt a dog/cat/two rats.
Use outside-view thinking to come up with a daily schedule broken down into Pomodoros. Pretend you are your own manager and structure it like you would for a subordinate. Maybe the lack of structure in PhD life is bothering you.
Outside-view an update on the following claim: “I got this far despite being a fraud.”
Start tracking your work time in .25-hour increments. Maybe you’re underestimating how much you get done.
Start a literature review club with your colleagues. Volunteer to lead the first session.
Post on a subreddit about your topic. Get a possibly net-unhealthy benefit from seeing Internet points roll in.
Ask your advisor for a quarterly progress review.
Marijuana edibles.
Supposedly 30 minutes playing a musical instrument has outsized benefits on wellbeing. :::