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Comment by shubb | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't feel confident to mentor anyone on anything. I'd feel like a total fraud.

This can't be uncommon.

When I was a developer, I either felt like what I was doing could be done by a smart highschooler (probably better than I was doing it) because it was straight forward, or like I was figuring things out as I went along (because it was hard).

Now I do less development and more business analysis / architecture, I feel like I'm talking to a lot of far smarter people, and probably look smarter than I am because I'm echoing better informed peoples opinions back and forth.

All I could advise someone starting out in tech is to remember that no one really knows what they are doing.

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The job of a mentor is often simply to listen, and to help the mentee hold themselves accountable.

If you've been successful in your career, in spite of what you perceive as personal limitations, I bet you have the humility to be a good listener and an empathetic motivator.

Honestly, if you look at most professional mentors and coaches, especially in sports, they aren't "the best" in their field. They are people who know enough to understand the problems and life experiences people in that field face and are networked in the field and able to help connect folks with each other.

Take a look at the GROW model for a good approach to working with mentees in fields you don't consider yourself to be an expert in.

Gah: 'Mentee'.

A Mentor doesn't practise the art of 'menting'! The name comes from the character of Mentor in Homer's Odyssey.

A mentor has protégées.

(Yeah, I know Wikipedia mentions 'mentee' - it's still a horrible word in my book.)

/pet peeve!

Thank you. It is a pet peeve of mine also.

Thanks for the etymology. Very interesting!

At the same time, language evolves and changes. Expecting it not to is likely only to lead to frustration. (I'm not immune. "Steep learning curve" to mean something difficult to learn gets me a bit riled.) The change you observe here is back formation[0], I believe.

Now, if you'll please excuse me. I think there are some kids on my lawn.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-formation

Interesting! Why do you get riled at "steep learning curve"?

The original formulation is based on a skill acquisition vs experience chart. On such a chart, a steep learning curve is one where skills are acquired quickly, as opposed to skills that are difficult to acquire. The common "steep learning curve" = "difficult" usage is understandable, given that steep hills are more difficult to climb. It's a knee-jerk reaction for me so it's transient: you're not going to see steam coming out of my ears :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_curve

>(I'm not immune. "Steep learning curve" to mean something difficult to learn gets me a bit riled.)

This has exactly the same effect on me. I've always thought about skill acquisition in terms of RC time constant: the time it takes me to reach 63.2% of something is finite and infinitely smaller than the time it takes to reach 100% (which never comes, hence the infinitely smaller), sometimes a sigmoid pops into my head.

So when I heard the expression "steepest learning curve" for the first time, I thought "sweet! tau is really small! Heaviside function like skill acquisition."

My brain melted when the context that followed the expression suggested that the thing was "really hard". "But.. but.. you have a Dirac like rate".

I use it sometimes but I give offerings to the Gods asking for forgiveness.

Are you sure the name ultimately comes from the character? Or was the character named after the idea of advising? The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests it means "advisor" as the agent noun for mentos, meaning "intent, purpose, spirit, passion." It could be related to monitor, and "men-", "to think."

Prescribe how you want, but one could make the case the mentee is the spirit-receiver of the mentor.

"protégées" is for a female only group. If at least one male is in the group, you drop the "e" and it becomes "protégés".

of course it isn't uncommon. in fact, it's so common it has a name: imposter syndrome. mentoring is probably a good way to kick that self-doubt, because it will make you realize how much you have to offer.

if you're happy in your new role, good for you! but to any developers experiencing imposter syndrome: there will always be people who seem smarter than you, and there will (hopefully!) always be jobs that are a struggle. it doesn't mean you're a fraud. use them both as resources to become one of those people who seem smarter than you. then find new people who seem smarter than you and repeat.

"All I could advise someone starting out in tech is to remember that no one really knows what they are doing"

That is actually valuable advice. Especially for people who assume everyone else is genius, because they don't know everything yet. It is about figuring stuff out, not about coming in already knowing everything.

> I wouldn't feel confident to mentor anyone on anything. I'd feel like a total fraud

Teaching and helping is an essential part of learning, just as knowing how to follow is essential to becoming a leader. You'll find helping someone else will hone your own skills.

Read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

As someone else pointed out, this is more commonly referred to as Imposter Syndrome.

> the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias wherein persons of low ability suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is

Don't think that is the same as Imposter Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

The Impostor Syndrome is quite the reverse of the Dunning–Kruger effect.

> All I could advise someone starting out in tech is to remember that no one really knows what they are doing.

That's why we are getting paid. We are all similar brain. Developers simply have familiar pathways that allows them to find solutions faster.

I think "no one really knows what they are doing" is repeated too often and has more or less become meaningless. After are, there are people out there who know what they're doing.

A better way to phrase it is "no one really has all the answers" or "everyone is making their way".

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