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Fake it till others make it. If you act (or actually are) very impressed with yourself, a surprising number of people will just accept you at your own valuation and proceed to be very impressed with you. Only the flimsiest evidence is required.
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It's only true in fields that require no hard skills. It's probably not a coincidence that there are loads of insulting medieval and early modern words that mean 'man who bigs himself up with no justification' ('braggart', 'popinjay')but far fewer in modern English.
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