Believing in Yourself is Overrated
What talent really feels like
The best of the best in all fields are their own worst critics.
They think that everything they do sucks.
Every second of every day they fight against their own Imposter Syndrome, and they’re worried that eventually everyone else will figure out that they have no idea what they’re doing and then their career will be over.
Negative feelings about their creations/work can even cross over into straight-up self-hatred.
The long list of talented writers who have committed suicide is testament to that fact: Ernest Hemingway, David Foster Wallace, Hunter S. Thompson, et. al.
These people struggled with self-loathing to the point where they killed themselves despite their extreme talent.
But that’s not exactly correct.
Instead of saying they struggled with self-loathing despite their talent, it’s more accurate to say they struggled with self-loathing because of their talent.
Overconfidence = zero talent
Because negative emotionality and extreme talent are two sides of the same coin.
Nobody believes in himself more than a talentless retard.
You and I have both seen it time after time. People who have no business being in the room they’re in are always filled to the brim with confidence/cockiness/arrogance.
It’s so common that you can reliably use it as an indicator that someone sucks at life.
A person who is overconfident is always talentless.
It’s one of those subconscious overcompensation things. Like a poor person trying to look rich by wearing LV monogrammed…everything, it’s just one of those things that happens automatically, without any sign of conscious effort.
So why do all the standard hacky self-help books preach the virtues of self-confidence?