I understood "making it" as accomplishing what you were pretending to be, often in the context of self-confidence

• someone is scared of public speaking and thinks they're no good at it
• they pretend that they are someone who is good at it, in order to get through situations where they need to do public speaking
• they eventually just get good at it

They're still faking it because there's always another "it" to make

Well then they obviously haven't yet made it!

No true Scotsman and all that

IF one's doing something, like getting onstage & doing a presentation, is something one has no experience with..

THEN "fake it 'till you make it" is absolutely-valid advice: you can't gain experience doing presentations, without doing presentations!

Inherently-inauthentic people, however, are inherently-inauthentic people.

That is a different category.

People have to LEARN how to do, how to be, & that requires stepping outside of what one already-has-done.

How could it possibly be otherwise?

Well depends, I think some industries just are fake in general,

Chiropractors, stock traders that aren't using insider information etc...

But otherwise I suppose it's just how you are "faking it". In IT the obvious joke is that we always just google everything. But at the end of the day that gets you better at knowing what to google, and over time you'll memorize most of it. and it's almost impossible not to start gradually learning the connections of how and why things work.

I disagree; "fake it til you make it" prescribes specific behavior (faking it) for a specific period of time (until you make it) but does not specify what behavior should take place (faking it or not) after that period has been exceeded.

Ah, but that is the great reality--those who "make it" are themselves still faking it, and the real question is: are they really faking anymore, or is this who they really are?

Relevant xkcd