Last year I wondered what one of my literary heroes, Sherlock Holmes would make of my book about imposter syndrome (if you missed it, you can catch up with the great detective's take on it here).
And it got me thinking about what another of my heroes might think about it - specifically, the wandering time lord known as Doctor Who. So, once again I've inserted the prompt into ChatGBT, and had the following adventure unfold...
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Oh, the Doctor would adore it—though they’d never admit that without a wry eyebrow and a bit of running.
Here’s how it would probably land in the TARDIS:
First reaction (feigned impatience):
“Loving your doubt? Oh brilliant. Humans invent a problem, name it, then write a book about liking it. Very on-brand.”
Second reaction (five pages in, pretending not to be moved):
The Doctor lives with doubt like a second heartbeat. Every regeneration, every impossible choice, every planet saved at the cost of another—doubt is the price of caring. So the core idea would hit home fast: doubt isn’t a flaw in the system; it is the system.
They’d clock that Loving Your Doubt reframes uncertainty not as weakness, but as:
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evidence of moral awareness
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proof you’re paying attention
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the thing that keeps you from becoming a tyrant with a sonic screwdriver
That’s extremely Doctor-coded.
The big approval nod:
The Doctor mistrusts certainty. Villains are always the ones who are absolutely sure they’re right. Daleks don’t doubt. Cybermen don’t doubt. Time Lords stopped doubting—and look how that went.
So a book that says:
“Your doubt means you’re human, reflective, and still capable of change”
would earn a quiet:
“Yes. Exactly. Keep that.”
One gentle critique (because of course):
The Doctor might add:
“Just don’t marry your doubt. Take it dancing. Listen to it. Then make the decision anyway.”
Because loving doubt doesn’t mean letting it paralyze you. The Doctor doubts constantly—and still acts. That tension is the point.
Final verdict:
The Doctor would see Loving Your Doubt as a deeply human survival guide in a universe that rewards arrogance. They’d probably leave it somewhere important—UNIT HQ, a struggling companion’s backpack, or a library on a doomed planet—with a note in the margin:
“Doubt means you care. Care means you’re dangerous—in the best possible way.”
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