Impostor Syndrome has been one of my favorite buzz psychological maladies of the past few years because I diagnosed myself the instant I heard about it. I'm pretty sure a lot of people did. I've written about it before in one of these songs, although I'm not sure which one, on account of how many songs I've posted here that deal with a similar kind of existential angst under any number of different names.

Impostor Syndrome is the feeling that you're faking it, and that you're in danger of being exposed as a fraud at any moment. I experienced it acutely in graduate school, and I've come back around to it since then in my professional life. What's to be done about this? I really don't know. Honestly, I'm open to suggestions. It's an exhausting sensation.

This song uses the familiar songwriting conceit of saying what "everyone" is feeling or doing. Leonard Cohen used to do this a lot. I'm not sure what he was going for, but for me it is a mechanism of self-delusion. I normalize my own experience by superimposing it on everyone in the world. It's sort of the opposite of the usual songwriting technique of mirroring a relatable emotion by using personal anecdote to draw a listener in. I'm telling you how you feel in order to mirror my own pathos, serving as a balm for what ails me, and drawing myself out. I apologize for being so presumptuous about your emotional state. Nevertheless, I promise to do it again and again on a regular basis.