"It's a great gig," said the freelancer. "I mean, I have a master's in social work, not management. So I wonder if he'd be better off with someone else. But I'm happy to run this guy's office."

This social-worker-turned-office-manager was expressing a common belief: "I'm a stand-in for someone who could do the job better." It's one of the hallmarks of so-called imposter syndrome.

Here's the thing, though: That hypothetical person they could have hired who is better than you does not exist. If that person did exist, they would have the job. Instead, you have the job. Your boss, client, or partner picked you: the right person at the right time.

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Let me tell you the worst message there is to receive, whether in business or personal life. It’s this:

“Please call me.”

I’m not saying that in the post-millennial, “Oh I’m such an introvert that I can’t bear to interact with a human and I prefer receiving text messages,” sense. No, I absolutely love the phone, and prefer it as a mode of communication in these not-in-person times.

The problem is the uncertainty. “Please call me” could signal anything from “I am about to fire you” to “I can’t decide between these two names for my folk-punk band and I need to hash it out with someone I trust.”

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I thought that I had gotten over so-called “imposter syndrome,” in which a person feels like a fraud, poorly qualified to do the things they’re doing (or want to do).

I remember when I could not — could not — create a website for my music. It felt totally phony to write a third-person bio (“Casey is a singer-songwriter who labors in obscurity…”) and when I went to write a first-person bio instead, I shut down completely. Years later, I felt grateful not to be there anymore. I could now start things and follow through on them. I could do the work that needed to be done (including writing bios) easily and without angst.

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When we teach history, it’s easy to unwittingly imbue events with a sense of inevitability — of destiny.

After all, things happened the way they happened — the only forking paths we can create are imaginary, born of the “what ifs” that we ask ourselves.

It’s important to see that, at every step of the way, what we call history is the result of human activity. Individual human beings made choices, collectively creating movements or maintaining the status quo. Some choices are more influential than others, but change always comes from people making the decision to act.

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The mother of a three-year-old revealed in conversation why she didn’t want to teach letters and numbers to her child.

“I don’t want him to be bored in preschool,” she said.

Grateful to have the opportunity and invitation to educate, I suggested that she teach her child without reservation, just as she had done for his first three years. “You are his first and best teacher,” I said.

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