Countering Impostor Syndrome Culture
Keynote SeaGL 2019
Impostor syndrome is the combination of unrelenting standards for yourself, and feeling like you’re an intellectual fake. There have been many talks that focus on changing the person who experiences impostor syndrome. But there are few resources for how the free software community can support people who experience impostor syndrome. How do we encourage new free software contributors who are struggling with impostor syndrome? How do we acknowledge the work of community members in a way that doesn’t trigger the impostor syndrome feelings of “I’m not good enough”? How can free software communities change the culture that creates and perpetuates impostor syndrome?
Presenters
Sage Sharp
Sage is the CEO of Otter Tech, which provides diversity and inclusion consulting. Sage has trained Code of Conduct enforcement teams for open source communities like Kubernetes, GNOME, Python, WordPress, and OpenStreetMap. They are a co-coordinator for Outreachy, a paid internship program with the goal of increasing diversity in free and open source software communities. They are a Python and Django developer for the Outreachy website. Sage was a Linux kernel developer for seven years. They are the original author of the Linux USB 3.0 driver.