Pedestals
One of the easiest ways to make yourself feel bad is to put other people on a pedestal.
This happens all the time in tech. We look at this firm or that and assume everyone there must be extraordinary.
Maybe that’s true somewhere, but I’ve never seen it.
There are outliers but, by definition, they’re rare. Mostly it’s just hard-working people doing their job the best they can, making mistakes along the way. The respectable but ordinary path.
We should admire and respect people. Admiration is one of the best ways to learn. Find someone doing great work and you should pay close attention.
But admiring someone is not the same as putting them on a pedestal. If they’re up there and you’re down here, you’ve already counted yourself out. They become the kind of person who does impressive things, and you become the kind of person who looks up at them.
This is because from the outside you only see the highlight reel. And that’s what you compare with your day-to-day, in all its grisly detail.
And if you think people up there on their pedestals have nothing but highlights, how can you compete with that?
But the reality is far more encouraging. Most people doing impressive work are not flawless geniuses. They’re just capable, hard-working people inside good systems.
Forget that, and you make two mistakes at once: you overestimate them, and you underestimate yourself.
Admire great people. Learn from them. See what’s possible. But don't put them on a pedestal.