blogging about blagging it

I'm always amused chatting to people about their jobs, and finding out how many are absolutely terrified of being 'found out'.

These are senior people. Heads of this, directors of that, managers of the other. All of them intelligent, thoughtful people who've worked hard and pretty diligently.

Yet all of them are often sure that they've only done it by pulling the wool over other people's eyes. That it will only take one person to notice their invisible emporers clothes and life will suddenly come crashing down. What a relief! No more pretending!

Even people at the 'top' like Russell Davies have little tricks on how to keep the curtain from falling.

It seems like the people who appear to know the most, are the ones who are most comfortable with how very little they know at all.

Whenever i read a book about something new, at the end of it I have a few minutes of feeling slightly cleverer, then almost immediately a crushing sense of how little i know - by learning a little about a subject area, suddenly you realise there is a whole new vast world of knowledge that you didn't even know existed, and by discovering it, you've made your current level of knowledge proportionately smaller.

It's funny, when you're a teenager, you know everything and no-one listens. When you're a 'grown up' people listen to you, actually pay you for your views, and you're starting to realise how little you know.

I can't think of two occupations more susceptable to this than IA & Planning, as from what I've seen people who do these jobs live in 2 states. 1) admitting "it's not a real job, but it's loads of fun so i hope no-one realises too soon." or 2) frantically trying to convince people of how essential and valuable it is.