Experience and knowing everything
In your field of work, have you come across things you don’t know that you feel like you should know? Especially the longer you’ve been in your profession? I got good news: You’re not alone!
As a writer for over ten years, I still use a dictionary and thesaurus all the time. I always spend a split second thinking about whether I used “affect” correctly, or if I needed to use “effect” instead.
Did I spell “asynchronous” correctly? What about conscience? Synonymous? Pharmaceutical? Simultaneously? Those squiggly red lines aren’t showing up, so I must have.
I’ve mistakenly used “their” instead of “there” a few times. I also typed “mistakingly” just then and autocorrect changed it to “mistakenly.” I’m pretty sure “mistakingly” is a word, but is it? Merriam-Webster says it is.
Because I'm a writer, I have this expectation that I should just know what every word means, how to spell every word, and what word to use in the right situation. But the truth is, the English language is complicated, and I'm not an expert on it.
Just because you have a lot of experience and knowledge in a certain field, doesn’t mean that you need to feel ashamed because you didn’t know something. It’s nearly impossible to have all the answers right at your fingertips, and sometimes you need to do some digging.
Senior web developers Google stuff all the time, and it’s a running joke within my circle of dev friends. It doesn’t mean they’re bad at their jobs and don’t know as much as they should. It’s just that they don’t know everything, and that’s okay.
A lot of this plays into the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which states that the more competence you have at a certain skill, the more you realize there’s still a lot to learn. It also works the other way—those with less experience and expertise at a skill feel like they know a lot about it, when—in reality—they don’t.
Essentially, people tend to overestimate their ability until their knowledge grows to a point where they become aware of all the things they don’t know.
Imposter syndrome, where you believe you’re not as knowledgeable and experienced as you really are, also plays a part in this. And it’s so common that I’m surprised to meet someone who doesn’t have imposter syndrome.
The above chart does a great job at illustrating the Dunning-Kruger Effect. The Valley of Despair is where imposter syndrome kicks in, but that’s not a bad thing. Even in the Valley of Despair, you’ve still learned a lot and gained experience, yet you realize you can learn so much more. It's actually a great place to be, because you'll only get smarter and more confident from there.
And even if you reach the Plateau of Sustainability, that imposter feeling never truly goes away. You always feel like there's more to learn and skills to improve on. And then you tell yourself that you don't know as much as you should, which exacerbates the imposter syndrome. It's a vicious cycle!
I don't say that to scare you, but to assure you that it's a normal feeling, perhaps even a healthy one—it's great to be confident in your abilities, but it takes true self-awareness to know what areas you can continue to grow in.
My point is, even if you’re experienced and knowledgeable in your field, you don't need to feel like you should know everything and be the one-and-only expert. There still may be a lot that you don’t know—and you feel like you should know those things—but it’s completely okay if you don’t. Give yourself a break.
Overtime
Other work-related stuff I want to talk about without dedicating an entire newsletter to it.
LG recently released a monitor with a 16:18 aspect ratio a couple months ago, and I want it. You might think it's weird, but it makes total sense from a productivity standpoint. Most computer monitors have a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is great for watching movies and TV shows, but it makes zero sense for web browsing or working on documents—these are tasks that absolutely benefit from a taller viewing experience. You can flip a 16:9 monitor vertically, but then it's almost too tall and nearly all the horizontal space is gone. This new monitor has the best of both worlds.
Honestly, we need to bring back 4:3 monitors. This used to be the standard aspect ratio back in the day, and it's a much better aspect ratio for productivity, hands down.
Happy Hour
Fun things I’m doing, TV shows and movies I’m watching, games I’m playing, music I’m listening to, and other neat stuff I want to share.
I finished watching the final season of Better Call Saul, and wow—Vince Gilligan never disappoints. Unforgettable story, characters, and relationships. The Breaking Bad universe is a gift none of us deserved. I'm sad it's over, but happy that it happened.
I made a couple fridge magnets out of some old hard drive magnets, using nuts as the "handle." I'm pleasantly surprised how great they are considering how simple they were to make.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you in two weeks. In the meantime, catch up on some older newsletter issues if you’re a new subscriber, and feel free to follow me on Twitter or Instagram for my off-hours shenanigans. And if you think a friend or family member would enjoy this newsletter, feel free to forward them this email and tell them to subscribe!