What is the word for when you feel like a fake? You are not trying to cheat anybody, but know that you are simply out of your depth / out of your class about something. This especially happens in technical conferences. There is a word for it but I don't remember what it is.
Learn English – the word for feeling fake when you pretend to know something that you don’t
phrase-requestssingle-word-requests
Best Answer
Impostor Syndrome
Sounds like you’re talking about the recently described phenomenon that has come to be called impostor syndrome, which Wikipedia says is:
Around a year ago now on October 26, 2015, Carl Richards wrote a New York Times piece entitled “Learning to Deal With the Impostor Syndrome” discussing “this fear that you’re bumping up against the limits of your ability”.
Apparently this is a common sentiment amongst high-functioning individuals. Given the nature of technical conferences, it is easy to imagine someone attending these feeling so overwhelmed by the dense technical topics they’re being exposed to there that some would find themselves stricken with impostor syndrome.