The upside of Impostor Syndrome is that it means that you have the capability of self-reflection — the possibility to look at yourself with critical eyes. This is actually a healthy thing in small doses. I am sure most of us have worked with a colleague who said “This is the only way” and “We have tried that, it will never work”. These are narrow-minded engineers closed off to reconsider alternative solutions and explanations - they lack a healthy sense of self-reflection.

The world is full of tradeoffs; The best engineers are great at self-reflection and constantly question the route they have taken, asking themselves “which solution is the best given this situation?“.

So if impostor syndrome kicks in, remember that it comes from a healthy place of self-reflection, just magnified. Not everyone is good at self-reflecting, so treat it with respect (but don’t take it too seriously). Watering the seed of Impostor Syndrome well can make you bloom into a great engineer.