Chad Verrall

Something I've been talking about a lot recently with my friends is how many people in the game industry seem to suffer from imposter syndrome, where they believe they don't deserve credit or plaudits for what they've accomplished.

From what I can tell, this comes from a combination of things. 1) a low sense of confidence in oneself or ones skill, and 2) the mindset that one has fixed skills or qualities that cannot change, and doing something great or not is a matter of "having what it takes."

I'm generalizing here, but it seems that since these people have low confidence in their skills, they don't believe they "have what it takes" to do something great. So when they do, they have trouble internalizing their accomplishments and lean towards believing they're unearned.

I think that in most cases, the praise is absolutely deserved. There are some cases where people get too much credit it's true, but thats usually because the recipient is deliberately cultivating praise. Never seen it happen to humble people, whom imposter syndrome affects.

What I think it comes down to is how one views ability and talent. I used to consider myself a dullard who could never be creative, until @JohnCleese pointed out that the main difference between creative and uncreative people is that the latter spend time trying to be creative.

Sure enough, spending time pressing my nose to the grindstone trying to be creative made my work much more interesting. Sure, there are people who started out more creative than me, and still more who learn faster than I do, but the point is, talent is not fixed. It can grow.