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I'm a grantee of Tyler's Emergent Ventures program (I was in batch 2) and I have to say that I was impressed by the people I met during the Emergent Ventures un

by shafyy 5y ago

I'm a grantee of Tyler's Emergent Ventures program (I was in batch 2) and I have to say that I was impressed by the people I met during the Emergent Ventures unconference (there was one two years ago and there will be another one this November). I really felt out of place, since everyone else seemed so much more accomplished and smart.

freewilly1040 5y ago
There's lots written about imposter syndrome probably worth checking out. A good tidbit of advice I have heard for when you feel unqualified or out of place: Ask yourself, do you think the person who invited you / hired you is stupid? Probably not, given the people around you smart and capable. In this specific case, of course, finding people who are not yet accomplished is entirely the point. Congrats on your selection.
- shafyy 5y ago
  Thank you! That's true, and I didn't mean to say that I think that I'm stupid or unaccomplished. I feel like I deserved it. I was just impressed by some of the other people. For example, there was this teenager who was building CubeSats. All I did at that age was play World of Warcraft =D
webmaven 5y ago
> I really felt out of place, since everyone else seemed so much more accomplished and smart. If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Believing this would quickly kill every room as the people inside leave.
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    A better way of getting the point across is “spend time with people who can help you grow”. And since no human is the best at everything, two people can both help each other grow.
  - hibikir 5y ago
    It's far more complicated than that. The maxim doesn't model a world where everyone has a smarts score, and everyone knows what everyone else's score is. That's not how the world works. What it's really saying is that if you believe that you are the smartest person in the room, and you are there just to teach, as you have little to learn, that you need to be in a room where you really believe you have a lot to learn from the others there. This is true regardless of how much better, or worse, you happen to be. I sure have seen rooms where almost everyone thought they were the smartest person in the room, and others where nobody thought they were the smartest. A common problem in startups is that you end up building the first room, when you really need to be building the second.
    - webmaven 5y ago
      > you need to be in a room where you really believe you have a lot to learn from the others there. Well put. Thank you.
  - webmaven 5y ago
    If a room empties out because everyone thought they were the smartest, maybe the room needed to empty out. Please note that the corollary is finding a room that contains at least one person as smart as you are or smarter. If that seems too high a bar, you've got problems.

by shafyy 5y ago

freewilly1040 5y ago

There's lots written about imposter syndrome probably worth checking out. A good tidbit of advice I have heard for when you feel unqualified or out of place: Ask yourself, do you think the person who invited you / hired you is stupid? Probably not, given the people around you smart and capable. In this specific case, of course, finding people who are not yet accomplished is entirely the point. Congrats on your selection.

shafyy 5y ago
Thank you! That's true, and I didn't mean to say that I think that I'm stupid or unaccomplished. I feel like I deserved it. I was just impressed by some of the other people. For example, there was this teenager who was building CubeSats. All I did at that age was play World of Warcraft =D

webmaven 5y ago

> I really felt out of place, since everyone else seemed so much more accomplished and smart. If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
> If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Believing this would quickly kill every room as the people inside leave.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  A better way of getting the point across is “spend time with people who can help you grow”. And since no human is the best at everything, two people can both help each other grow.
- hibikir 5y ago
  It's far more complicated than that. The maxim doesn't model a world where everyone has a smarts score, and everyone knows what everyone else's score is. That's not how the world works. What it's really saying is that if you believe that you are the smartest person in the room, and you are there just to teach, as you have little to learn, that you need to be in a room where you really believe you have a lot to learn from the others there. This is true regardless of how much better, or worse, you happen to be. I sure have seen rooms where almost everyone thought they were the smartest person in the room, and others where nobody thought they were the smartest. A common problem in startups is that you end up building the first room, when you really need to be building the second.
  - webmaven 5y ago
    > you need to be in a room where you really believe you have a lot to learn from the others there. Well put. Thank you.
- webmaven 5y ago
  If a room empties out because everyone thought they were the smartest, maybe the room needed to empty out. Please note that the corollary is finding a room that contains at least one person as smart as you are or smarter. If that seems too high a bar, you've got problems.