On Confidence

The difference between success and failure often hangs on a concept that our standard education system never touches: confidence. On Confidence walks us around the key issues that stop us from making more of our potential. We hear about the impostor syndrome, the wisdom of imagining the great in their bathrooms, and what Nietzsche and Montaigne (among others) have to tell us about resilience and courage. We often stay stuck with the level of confidence we have because we regard being confident as a matter of good luck. In fact, the opposite is true: confidence is a skill based on ideas about our place in the world, and its secrets can be learned.

I Introduction

II Idiocy and Confidence

III Impostor Syndrome

IV Trust in the System

V History is Now

VI Experience

VII Death

VIII Enemies

IX Self-Sabotage

X Confidence in Confidence