The upside of Imposter Syndrome, Book review of Alchemy, and how to pick up some good wine
The upside of Imposter Syndrome, Book review of Alchemy, and how to pick up some good wine
The High Five - Edition #28
Hello there!
This is the 28th edition of ‘The High Five’. A special welcome to all the new subscribers. Thank you all for staying tuned. The last few weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride with long work hours, backaches and a stream of distressing news stemming from the 2nd wave of Covid-19 in India. I just hope normalcy gets restored soon.
So, here are the 5 things that I found interesting this week:
The upside of Imposter Syndrome
A book review of Alchemy
How to choose a bottle of wine?
A quote from ‘The Psychology of Money’
A question about a compounded change in your life
Career: The hidden upside of Imposter Syndrome
In one of my previous posts, I shared about Imposter’s Advantage. It was about reframing the way we look at Imposter Syndrome. This week, I came across this interesting article on BBC, which argues that imposter syndrome has an upside. Now, historically, imposter syndrome had a negative label associated with it because it is believed to be impeding the success of those experiencing it. But according to new studies, the behaviours that ‘imposters’ exhibit in an attempt to compensate for their self-doubt can actually make them good at their jobs.
Imposters lean into the feelings of inadequacy and put extra effort into communication thereby resulting in them actually outperforming their non-imposter peers in interpersonal skills. Imposter syndrome can actually motivate us to work harder to prove ourselves and work smarter to fill gaps in our knowledge and skills. But that requires putting in some focus. Since imposters syndrome leads to people perceiving some competence gap between themselves and their peers, focusing on that perceived competence gap and putting your energy towards closing it might give people the edge they are looking for.
An interesting book review: Alchemy
I haven’t read this book yet but I came across this interesting book summary, accompanied with good sketch notes, on the website of Abhijit Bhaduri. I am a big fan of sketch notes style of summarizing concepts and I find them incredibly concise to remember some stuff.
This article gave me enough gist that I added the book to my wish list. I have been reading a lot off-late and hopefully, the turn of this book will come soon.
Lifestyle: How to choose a bottle of wine?
Ever bought a bottle of wine as a gift for a friend? How did you go about picking the right bottle? Wine is a big subject and you might have heard that there is so much of art to it, as well as science. I remember watching a course on wine on one of the flight journeys I took a couple of years ago. Yet, I still have not gotten myself to understanding the bad, good and the best wine. Sure, I do like certain flavours (or grapes) but I am far from true wine appreciation. Yet, I do like to explore it now and then. This article provides a good overview of how to pick up a bottle of wine.
The article has a link to a very useful (and comprehensive) article on wine by Wine Folly. Some of the tips might come in handy, next time you are curious to try some red wine.
A quote from a recent book I read: “Getting what we want is not about making good decisions. It's about consistently not screwing up. Make mistakes, by all means, but learn from them. They’re costly. Much better to be less wrong, more often” - The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel.
A question to think about: What is one aspect or dimension of your life, where you have seen significant change compounded over the years?
I hope you liked reading this edition. If any friend of your’s might enjoy it, do consider sharing it. Until next time.
