Nature vs....wait, what's the other bit? Suture?

I was feeling down about my science earlier. Even though there's some reasonable external evidence that I'm doing decent work, I still sometimes compare myself to the very best people out there and end up focusing on where I fall short.

Usually when I get in these moods, the tune in my head goes something like, "Other people are just more born scientists. They love science more than you. They think of experiments when they are taking hikes in the mountains. When you are taking hikes in the mountains, you think about not tripping."

I'm aware this is a variant of imposter syndrome. (Also, perhaps, of some problems with coordination.) What's interesting to me is that in these moods I often focus on the degree to which my peers and superiors seem born with an aptitude for experiments.

After 5+ years of grad school, it's clear to me of course that while a certain amount of scientific aptitude can be inborn (as it must be for this guy), much more of it is a matter of training. My sub-sub-field of biology, like most, involves a lot of practice at both the techniques and the intellectual approach. I'm now quite good at troubleshooting problems, not because of any inborn arcane know-how, but because I trained for these skillz. Yeah, molarity calculations!

So there's no reason to think that whatever my scientific deficiencies may be to date, I can't train to overcome them, too. Yet when I'm feeling low in the water, I tend to think I was born without a scientific bent, and that I can never overcome that.

I don't know if this is a common aspect of impostor syndrome--the notion that one's defects are insuperably ingrained--but I hope that every time I can identify it, I can fight it.

Er, unless the ability to talk oneself out of a stupid mindset is genetically ingrained.