Okay, let's be honest with ourselves. It must be some fundamental component of the modern human condition -- the fear (especially in our professional lives) that someone, somewhere, sometime will figure out our dirty little secret: I've been faking it. I'm a hack. I have no idea what I'm doing or why I get paid to do it. Someone else is better at it than me.
For most of us, this is a passing and irrational fear. It comes on quickly in a bout of night-tremors and sheet-sweat. Gone by morning, back to work, and the whole cycle starts again...
Unless you're Jayson Blair. Who, until recently, was a reporter for the NY Times. Reading Blair's tale, I feel sorry for him.
Not because he got caught, but because - for him - the fear was real. And rational. And founded in his own shortcomings. And that must feel about thirty times worse than the garden-variety anxiety that most of us carry around with ourselves every day. I wonder if Blair is relieved that the deception is over?
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