Comment by neilv
20 hours ago
> My immediate reaction in my head was: "This is impossible". But then, a teammate said: "But we're Google, we should be able to manage it!".
"We can do it!" confidence can be mostly great. (Though you might have to allow for the possibility of failure.)
What I don't have a perfect rule for is how to avoid that twisting into arrogance and exceptionalism.
Like, "My theory is correct, so I can falsify this experiment."
Or "I have so much career potential, it's to everyone's advantage for me to cheat to advance."
Or "Of course we'll do the right thing with grabbing this unchecked power, since we're morally superior."
Or "We're better than those other people, and they should be exterminated."
Maybe part of the solution is to respect the power of will, effort, perseverance, processes, etc., but to be concerned when people don't also respect the power and truth of humility, and start thinking of individual/group selves as innately superior?
Sorry to say that, but this sounds a bit like a fantasy. I think the vast majority of Google employees don't see themselves as particularly brillant or special. Even there, lots of people have imposter syndrome.
Actually, I've found this is a constant in life, whatever you achieve, you end up in a situation where you're pretty average among your peers. You may feel proud to get into Google for a few months, and then you're quickly humbled down.