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So I just started my new postdoc. I'm starting to, you know, do, like, I started learning about
machine learning, a lot of new things I don't have no real background for. And eventually,
at the end of this project, I will need to start being able to implement this in my
experiment. But, like, right now, I'm okay being in a learning phase, right? And the advice I got
from my boss, basically, was, like, a lot of machine learning stuff is a lot of buzzword,
you know, it's a lot of things that is not that difficult if you have time and effort to sit down
with the material. But it just gets thrown around a lot as, like, a catchy word that people want to
use, like deep learning or things like that. And people like that, that could sound scary.
So like, don't worry about that. And I think he tried to encourage me by saying, fake it till you
make it. And that's just like a common advice that people give to new students, new postdocs,
like, anyone starting new, you know, fake it till you make it, at least in America, I feel.
And, like, I feel like, generally, generally speaking, I feel like Japanese people don't fake it.
Like, they can either do it, and they will, right, right. And if anything, they will downplay how
much they can do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We tend to say we can't really do it. Right, when you actually
can. It's like the reverse fake. But to Americans, it's a very common advice, fake it till you make
it. And in some context, it's...
I was just like, I mean, I can't fake intelligence. Like, I can't fake knowledge.
I get what he's trying to say. He's just trying to encourage me that like, if I get myself familiar
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with the material, get myself acquainted to the material, pretend a little bit to know,
eventually, I will get to the place where I actually would know. So it's not completely
weird for him to say that. But it did make me feel like, like, how good of an advice is this,
fake it till you make it. I'm not sure. Generally, I think that jumping into a new
field, it's a good thing, you know, because you're young and, you know, you kind of,
as long as you see the way you're heading, like a through line, and you have this goal that you
want to reach in several years, and then you know what you can gain from it. Then I think it's
a good thing to be exposed to new fields, like learning new techniques, concepts. So this could
be it. So what I thought was that your PhD supervisor, what he meant was, was that part?
Yeah, yeah. Don't be scared. Right. Yeah. Go for it. Right. Yeah. And then you learn. Yeah. And
then you, yeah. Yeah. You became better at something. Right. Yeah. Like everybody has
to start somewhere. Right. Right. Right. Is that the same thing? Well, yeah, I guess that's,
that's one way of looking at it. The other way is like, how long do I have to fake it? You know?
At some point, it's no longer acceptable to fake it, right? You have to make it. Yeah, exactly.
At some point, I have to make it. Yeah. But like, but like, good idea to fake it.
Exactly. But this advice, fake it till you make it, doesn't, doesn't tell you. Yeah,
doesn't tell you when you should start making it. So, so that just made me wonder. I'm like,
you know, even my PhD, have I just been faking it this whole time? I kind of,
like, am I still faking it? Do I actually know? You know? I don't, I don't know about myself
either. Right. Up to this point. Right. And you've been a career scientist for so long. Yeah,
but I still don't know what I have achieved all these years. Right. And like, the more you know,
the more unsure you become about what you actually know. Yeah. Because our, I don't know,
subjective world expands. Exactly. Yeah. When we understand something,
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we know that there are more other stuff that we need to understand. Yeah. And then,
the awareness makes you feel like you're faking it still. Yeah. So like, we know nothing about.
Yeah. But like, so do I keep faking? Yeah. Is this faking for me? Yeah. Or maybe it's like faking,
does that actually mean that we're, like, proactively trying to expand our knowledge base?
Yeah. So let's, yeah, let's interpret faking as, yeah, expanding, like, searching.
So then, like, maybe it's okay to just fake forever? Yeah. I like, I like maybe based on.
Faking it forever. That's, that's one extreme.
I mean, like, I would like to work with someone who's not faking it, right? Like,
I would like to work with somebody who actually knows what they're doing.
It's not faking. It's not faking. Yeah. Yeah. But it was just like a, it's just like a,
such a common sort of throwaway advice that people give. But yeah, I don't know. And it's also,
it's, it's good in a way, because oftentimes when you're starting something new, you don't really
know where to start, or like, if this is the right way to do a certain thing. And the sum amount of
trial and error is inevitable. And in a process, you will make a lot of mistakes, which makes you
think you might be faking it. So if it's like a good kind of faking, it's okay. But you should,
I guess, maybe this is a conditional faking. Yeah, maybe that's what it is. So it's like,
you can fake it, as long as you know, and are clear about where is the limit of your knowledge
base. Like if you know, if you know the things that you don't know, then you can like,
with the awareness that you're still learning, I think you can fake it.
But like, if you forget that you're still learning, and you're still faking it,
you're just like lying. It's just a, it's just faking. Yeah, that's just faking. Pure faking.
Yeah. So it depends on the definition of faking. Yeah, yeah. And also like exactly what they're
talking about, right? Like, you know, things like mastery of knowledge, that's like a lifetime
process. You can't just like, become an expert in a few years and claim that this is my expertise.
And I know about, I know everything about this better than everyone else in the world,
like you can't really do that. But I think what you can do is just,
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I don't know what I was going for. Where was I going with this?
Where was I going? It's too hot.
It's like 30, 36, 37 degrees. Yeah, it's just stupid. Like, I cannot think straight.
But yeah, maybe we should wrap it up. But like, basically, I don't know, I just wanted to think
about this fake it till you make it concept because it's a good advice. It gets thrown around.
But also, it depends on what you're trying to fake depends on. Also, I think it also depends
on a person. Like, if you're saying this to somebody who, relatively speaking, undersells
themselves. It's a good sort of like, but if you're saying this to like people who are already
like on a, they are on a side of overconfidence, maybe they're just not a good person. Maybe we
shouldn't encourage. Maybe you shouldn't fake. I guess it's kind of hard to judge though, you know,
like to decide what kind of person you're saying this to. Right. But yeah, I think, I think,
especially for English though, like specifically for English, it's very,
very fake it till you make it, I think. The more faking you do, the better. And,
and that's truly the only way you will improve, I think. It could be like faking, faking it,
fake it may be meant to fake your perception, or like, in a psychological sense. So even when
you're feeling awkward or nervous, you can fake it until you can actually achieve something.
Yeah. Yeah. It kind of gives you the alter ego personality that is more confident.
Yeah. Until your actual personality merges with this more confident self. Yeah, maybe, maybe. So
not the worst idea, but don't tell it to the people who are already confident. That's the
gist of it. Great. That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us at
EigoDescience on Twitter. That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C-E. See you next time.
