[style guide: Important that it actually does somewhat function as advice on how to deal with impostor syndrome]

[introduction - amogus skämt, troligen, but like, self-aware]

Important to get it out of the way, but yes haha funny, sussy baka, amogus, etc.

[real introduction? - write about some statistics in impostor syndrome. Define impostor syndrome]

Step 1. Pre-preparations

Prior to any given assignment, reflect on all your previous failures. Think about all the ways it could go wrong, or has gone wrong in the past. This ensures that you stress yourself up in preparation of any given work, and furthers any chances that you mess up the actual work.

In the planning stages of work, make sure not to set up workable or incremental goals towards finishing the work. Follow your instincts, as your brain is proficient at screwing up the work, if you let it. This is especially true if you’re used to this kind of workflow from prior experience (see: your entire life).

[Step 2. Actually preparing for work/do the work. Always over-prepare or don’t prepare at all.]

Whenever you do preparation, such as studying, or researching, remember that there is always a chance that your work could go wrong. This means that you always have to put in more work than you already have. This ensures that you either put in a ridiculous amount of work, or fail to do any work at all after realizing the huge workload ahead of you.

It’s important to also pre-plan your work ahead of time. Impromptu studying heightens your chances of spending your time in inefficient ways, which furthers our goals.

[Step 3. Finish the work and reflect on your results.]

Present your finished product, or service. If you did well, you may now be feeling a sense of relief, or accomplishment, over having succeeded well. It’s important to keep this feeling short lived, so as to not let the brain imprint this into any long-term memory, to be dredged up later. Instead, remember that you either put in so much work that even someone stupid would have succeeded, so you’re not very good after all. If you didn’t prepare for the work, then remind yourself that it must’ve logically been a fluke.

If you didn’t do well, such as failing your exam, or flubbing a presentation, this is ironclad evidence of your incompetence. Reflect deeply over how you screwed up the preparations, and theorize over how you’ve managed to deceive people into believing you’re competent.

It’s important that you do not talk to other people about this. They will surely lie to you and say that you must have been talented to achieve what you did. Support from friends and family is not helpful, and may even inflate your ego to a level commensurate with the external evidence of competence.

This might result in people seeing through your deceptions!

[Step 4. Continuing the cycle.]