8Designing for Self
Self-doubt is quite normal. More than most people will readily admit, most of us struggle with imposter syndrome at some points in our lives. In April 2012, I was a visiting professor at Tokyo University, and my dad, who lived in India at the time, came to visit. During dinner one evening, I shared with him that I was feeling out of my depth at work, struggling at times, that maybe I wasn’t good enough. He listened intently, as he always did, and said, “Manu, one’s ambition should always exceed their talent.” He meant by this that what I was feeling was a good thing, as I was pushing myself to grow and learn.
A Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky, embodied this wisdom in his theory of cognitive development. He called it ...
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