On maybe not being an impostor

I've been thinking a lot about impostor syndrome recently. Specifically, will I ever stop feeling like I'm an impostor?

And apparently I will, just a little bit. As it turns out, a bunch of people that I think are really smart and know a lot of things think that *I* know some things. It becomes logically inconsistent to still think I've got everyone fooled. How could people that are so smart be fooled by someone who doesn't know things? If I think I don't know enough things about ops, what would make me think I know enough things to fool people who do know things about ops? These people are clearly too smart to be fooled, so maybe I actually do know a few things myself. A solidly non-zero number of things.

So far this year I have:

• Spoken at 4 conferences, including one keynote

• Attended my first Velocity

• Been a guest on two ops-related podcasts

• Gotten to hang out with a whole bunch of really smart and awesome people

• Decidedly not been part of a pink-haired conspiracy, because there is none

And that's not even counting the panel I'll be on at Velocity NY in September! I've made a ton of progress in the past four years, both personally and professionally. So while I still have a lot to learn, at least I can look at myself and realize that I'm more than just an impostor who's been fooling everyone this whole time.