Journal
Progress and the evolution of ideas.
Embrace Your Mutations
The antidote for imposter syndrome is doing something.
September 8, 2019
The antidote for imposter syndrome is doing something. Who cares what people think? What matters is living. And life doesn’t happen in a straight line, according to Alie Ward, who is making a study of the people who are learning all sorts of things in the process of living. Her advice: embrace your mutations. According to evolutionary biology, it is our mutations that give us an edge in our ability to adapt to our environment.
What are my mutations? I have a terrible memory. That is why I write. I don’t know much about anything. That is why I observe, listen, and read. I am a terrible communicator. That is why I study design and communications. I am a terrible artist. That is why I study art, design, and architecture. I keep wondering why the Bauhaus no longer exists. So, I keep discovering the many ways that the Bauhaus has and continues to shape and transform our world. It is also the reason I am curious about the world of ideas and how good ideas spread.
So, if that is what makes me weird, I am okay with that. I am embracing my mutations.
“No one knows anything, seriously, until they ask.”
— Alie Ward, Ologies