Ask HN: How do you overcome imposter syndrome?

I’ve been working at YC-backed startups since graduating from university. I’m now at a company building a deeply distributed systems product, and I’m surrounded by incredibly talented engineers who seem exceptionally strong at what they do. They often have knowledge and intuition about things I barely understand.

Lately, I’ve been feeling inadequate — like I’m contributing more to the less exciting parts of the product rather than the “cool” or core engineering challenges.

On top of that, I’m an immigrant and my wife and I are expecting. Balancing that with a fully remote job has been difficult, and at times I feel like I’ve lost some of my competence or sharpness. I’m taking steps to address this — I’ll be speaking with a psychologist soon — but I genuinely wonder: how does someone overcome these feelings while working within a high-functioning engineering team?

Comments

al_borland | 2026-02-18 01:13 UTC

Some of it may never go away, as there is always more to know and you’ll never know it all. That’s what the team is for; together you can know more than any one person alone. Each person ends up having their areas of expertise.

Some acceptance of this and realization that you’re part of that team will come in time. When I first started working I felt like I should quit before they figured out I didn’t know anything. I felt like I always had to go ask other people questions. At a certain point, that dynamic flipped and I was spending all day answering questions from other people. These days, it’s more balanced. There are things I go to others for, and I think they’re brilliant at what they do. Those people also come to me for help on things I have more experience in. It’s a give and take. When you start, it will be more take than give, but that’s how everyone starts.

bdangubic | 2026-02-18 02:17 UTC

there is a reason you are there. this highly functional team includes you, you are also integral part of this team. over my long career I’ve had couple of moments like this and just remembering that I am part of a team and that I was chosen, instead of 1,000’s of others always got me through.