I think that one of the most challenging things in my life as a developer is the Impostor Syndrome. Unless you’re stuck into a mediocre job, where everyone around you is pretty lame (and, believe me, if you’re in that situation, you want to get out as soon as possible), I think it is quite common to get that feeling of “wow, I don’t deserve to be here” feeling from time to time.

I am pretty terrible at myself, and I suspect I am not the only one. If I achieve something, that great feeling of “Oh, yeah!” will wear out after a few hours or days. I still remember sometimes failures I did at High School and feel bad about them. Yep, it sucks.

I have also perceived that it’s more dependent on yourself and team dynamics, that really on how smart people surrounding you is. Currently, I am in an astonishing place to work, where there are plenty of super amazing people. Surely I get impressed with great stuff often. But in previous jobs I had, where people were way less awesome but there were less communication, I felt it even worse.

Probably because we are painfully aware of all our limitations, the times we procrastinate, our failures, our own struggles with stuff that’s hard. But we perceive others more as their successes, their external results and their progress. One of the most common advice when performing live is to learn to “keep going” after a mistake, because it’s more important to continue that to allow that mistake to make you lose focus. With lack of positive reinforcement and seeing how valued is your work, it is very difficult to see your achievements and see yourself as a valuable member of a team.

I am more and more convinced that a great team and a great atmosphere are two of the most important things at job (if not THE most important), as well as in life. After all, we want to be reasonably happy while we’re working. Heck, we deserve to be happy at work.

That’s why I consider that giving good feedback to your co-workers is absolutely capital. Of course, when deserved. Of course, honest. It has to come from the heart. But I’m pretty sure that most of developers out there are way more eager to say and mean it “this is crap” than “this is fantastic“. And it shouldn’t be.

Shower the people you love with love, show them the way that you feel

One of your most important duties as a developer is to show appreciation to your fellow co-workers so they know they’re great (and you know they are)