🧠 Onboarding Note | The More I Learn, the Less Qualified I Feel

From: Office of Onboarding
To: All Staff
Subject: Learning Progress — Confidence Variance

The Office has identified an unexpected side effect of learning something difficult.

At the beginning, we knew there were things we did not know.

Then we started learning.

Unfortunately, this revealed considerably more things we did not know.

Confidence subsequently declined.

This has occasionally been interpreted as:

Maybe I’m not capable of doing this.

The Office would like to correct the record.

Learning does not only increase knowledge.

It also increases our ability to see the gaps.

Things that once looked simple become more complex. Questions become better. Details previously invisible become noticeable.

This can create the peculiar experience of becoming more capable while temporarily feeling less capable.

It does not mean every concern is imposter syndrome. Sometimes a gap is real.

If so, excellent.

The gap has now been identified.

It can be worked on.

The Office therefore advises against using discomfort during learning as premature evidence of incapability.

Current status: Learning.
Known gaps: Increasingly visible.
Brain: Complaining.
Conclusion: Onboarding remains in progress.

Respectfully continuing,
Office of Onboarding
“Seeing the gap is part of learning how to cross it.”