"I've never heard a white man talk about impostor syndrome. I haven't met one."

[Jedi Guy]

91. I don't by any means sit at the kind of elite tables she's talking about.

Last edited Wed Jun 3, 2026, 02:58 PM - Edit history (1)

But I've felt impostor syndrome and I'm a white guy. I jumped into a management role years ago with zero management experience and felt it acutely for quite a while. All at once I had people asking me what to do and the anxiety and self-doubt were almost crippling some days.

I still feel it sometimes now in my current role. I'm a manager in a technical field but I'm not a licensed technician myself. I have techs asking me what to do when they're on a job site and I have to figure it out. My boss and fellow managers from other teams ask me how we should handle a situation and I have to figure it out.

Are national economies going to crash if I choose incorrectly? Are countries going to go to war if I screw up? Are people going to suffer if I don't know what to do?

No to all of the above. But my decisions carry weight inside my own little world and that gets to me sometimes. Sometimes I feel like I'm just faking it and no one has clued in yet.

So yeah, white men feel it too. Probably not as intensely as others, sure, but I think it's fair to say impostor syndrome is a human experience and one that can touch anyone in the right (or wrong) circumstances.

I'm not pissed at Mrs. Obama for saying this. It's her opinion and she's entitled to it. But I can and do respectfully disagree with her.