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Comment by gfiorav | Hacker News Reader

Mentoring requires a significant amount of effort when done effectively. I find it hard to believe that anyone would willingly offer to mentor in such a broad manner. It makes me quite suspicious that the author has a genuine understanding of what mentoring entails.

In my opinion, mentoring has become a trend and a status symbol. The current definition of mentoring does not genuinely benefit anyone except the egos of those offering it.

To be honest, this entire post reeks of that.

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The author is offering 1.5 hours of meetings, as three 30 minute conversations. It's not nothing, but it's also probably not really the level of mentoring that can be super impactful. But it might make a difference to some people who apply.

I've had one amazing career-related mentor in my life. He probably spent 20+ hours per week for 6 months doing mentoring things for me. He worked VERY hard at this but his work was very impactful on me and I really appreciated it. He had support of his management, which was critical to being able to spend that much time on mentoring.

I've tried to be a mentor for Google Summer of Code before. It was difficult for me and required a LOT more effort and time than I had expected. Mentoring well is not easy.

Mentoring isn’t just about time; it’s a mental investment. The few people I mentor often come to mind frequently. I reflect on our conversations, even though the actual time spent talking is minimal. I take it very seriously and genuinely feel their progress as my own.

I don’t think I could mentor even 10 people without failing. You have to genuinely care about their progress.

Perhaps the author means coaching. That’s scalable. Teach people how to do something you’ve successfully done repeatedly. That’s something I could do even for groups.

Yeah, coaching and mentoring are totally different things. Coaching is more structured—you teach people a skill or process you’ve mastered. Mentoring is way more personal. It’s about actually understanding someone, their goals, their struggles, and helping them figure stuff out.

That’s why good mentoring is so hard to find. It takes real effort and emotional investment. You can’t just scale it up infinitely. But even a little bit of good mentoring can be life-changing.

How do you even get someone to spend that long for that long helping you out?

Would you feel more comfortable about it if you re-framed it as "I'm willing to have three 30 minute calls with people about their life and projects to see if I can provide any useful tips?"

That's what this is, and I don't think it pretends to be anything else. I don't think it's worth getting too hung up on the "mentoring" language used here - especially since I'm certain there is no standard agreed definition of what "mentoring" actually entails. Or have I missed one?

> To be honest, this entire post reeks of that.

I could definitely be out of the loop but I've never heard of the linked blog/newsletter, and there is no explanation of who it is, so the whole thing gives me a feeling of "uhm, why would I do that?"

I don't know anything about the author themselves, but the site is one third from the top of my pinned tabs in Arc, on my "not being directly productive" space.

They write good quality, thought-provoking content that I enjoy.

It isn't true at all mentoring takes a lot of effort. It really depends on a lot of factors. My 2 bosses at work are excellent at abstract thinking and mental models. They are usually able to provide significant ways of looking at things differently in just a few minutes of talking with them.

I will say they are hard to find. These aren't your average people.

It also really depends on where the mentee is. If there is a massive gap from where they are and where they want to go, that would be a large undertaking.

However, mentors don't have to expend all that effort. Even just a bit of help from time to time would be preferable to zero mentorship, which is where most people are today.

That was my first impression as well. Unfortunately I grew up with someone who offered "mentoring" when he felt the need to augment his own sense of magnanimity, and the only help that was given was that I needed to agree with his (always bigoted, usually horrifying) opinions about whatever was on his mind at the time. So whenever someone is openly offering mentorship, I immediately nope out.

I don't know anything about the author, but he doesn't seem like a bad person by any means, and this post is probably well intentioned. I just can't help but get an ick from this.

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