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[Artylo]

yeah dang! that actually looks pretty rad

i know that it's the equivalent of your private high school college-ruled notebook journal but it looks pretty rad

Dito this!

Thanks mate

[FrankieSmileShow]

Woa, coincidence, I posted something not too long ago somewhere, that was basically about this! Lemme paraphrase a part of it here.

This phenomenon is just the old thing about how any artist is always their own worst critic. That goes for any sort of creative work.
This is because, when you look at something YOU made, you think of the process. You think of how you made it, you think of your various sources of inspiration, you see the whole rough, rocky path from idea to final product. It has no mystique. Results are  the banal result of many hours of normal day-to-day work. Ideas are the banal result of absorbing a lot of ideas from outside and putting em together in new ways. Its all a lot less impressive from the inside.

On the other hand, when you look at someone else's work, you see a finished product, on its own terms. You know that there was work behind it, but that idea isn't internalized. You don't see how this or that idea comes from this or that source of inspiration, you dont see the mistakes and problems and struggles and failed ideas, you just play the game. It's like a magical, mysterious little thing that came out of nowhere.

You look at your own work, and it seems like you are barely keeping up. You remember everything you couldn't do because you fucked up, you remember all your mistakes, you remember how shitty you were when you were just starting out, all the struggles and problems, you remember what the game/drawing/song looked like in your head at the beginning of the project and how your actual final product doesn't quite match...
And then you look at other peoples' work, and it seems effortless. Everything just looks perfect. But that's just because you aren't getting the whole story.

I think this is something everyone kind of knows about art and creativity, but its a difficult idea to internalize. I am getting a lot more confident with my art nowadays, but I still struggle with that mindset when it comes to game design in general. I think something about games makes game devs more susceptible to having this mindset. Something about how game design is easy to oversimplify in your head...

[bitserum]

It's not just artists/creative types though, it can show up in anyone, whether they're a high performer or even those doing more menial jobs. I've seen it often in people around me.

This is an interesting excerpt article about the impostor syndrome and high performers.
There's more in her book, but this sums it up.

On the other hand, when you look at someone else's work, you see a finished product, on its own terms. You know that there was work behind it, but that idea isn't internalized. You don't see how this or that idea comes from this or that source of inspiration, you dont see the mistakes and problems and struggles and failed ideas, you just play the game. It's like a magical, mysterious little thing that came out of nowhere.

I used to struggle with this a lot too, I think it's sort of connected to our innate tendency to jump to conclusions.

[Artylo]

It's not just artists/creative types though, it can show up in anyone, whether they're a high performer or even those doing more menial jobs. I've seen it often in people around me.

This is an interesting excerpt article about the impostor syndrome and high performers.
There's more in her book, but this sums it up.

That article sums up things pretty nicely. It really is something people can relate to.