One really annoying side-effect of networking with other developers, learning about technologies used at other companies, and reading development books is it seems to skew how I view my own skill level.

According to Wikipedia:

Impostor syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a concept describing high-achieving individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.

Generally speaking, the people I interact with in the I.T. field all seem to view me as a highly-capable developer. We might have our disagreements here or there on technology choice, a specific implementation, or that sort of thing… but I think overall I’d get pretty high rankings from my peers (whether professionally or just friends in the field).

And, looking back at other developers I’ve worked with over the years, many of them — even highly-paid consultants — would be stumped by things that seemed almost childishly simple to me.

Even so, sometimes it’s very difficult to shake the feeling that I’m far less skilled than I should be. But I suppose that’s better than the alternative — unwarranted overconfidence.