Shiny Impostor Object Syndrome Complex
I've spent probably $100,000 on creative tools in my lifetime, and that's a conservative estimate. My output should be so much more based on the embarrassment of technical riches I possess. But Shiny Object Syndrome isn't the real problem here. That's a made-up name and another side of perfectionism that creative people deal with constantly. But I refuse to make it a pathology, it's just a feature of the process. We all have psychological protective behavior patterns. That's a part of being human. For some people, it shows up as high achievement; for others, it appears as ambivalence in our commitments, and for others, it's a compulsion to never move out of our safe zones. Impostor Complex is a similar condition. It's a way of protecting ourselves from exposure, embarrassment, and failure. And it's a part of almost every creative person's life that I've come across, including my own. Creative people learn to work in spite of these protective ...