Story about the best mentor ever I had, who I never appreciated until much later. Thread.

I was straight out of uni, and full of confidence. On a project, I was paired with this lead engineer.

Whenever I asked something, they responded with a question. And another. (1/5)

These questions made me feel stupid. We got to a solution, but painfully slowly. It get like they were toying with me. Why not just tell me, when they already knew?

Even when I got something done *really* well, they asked: “have you considered X? what about Y edge case?” (2/5)

Even more odd, they were super patient, never losing their cool, and in the end, always telling me I did a good job. But all I felt was how I was wasting their time.

So I started to ask the questions I knew they’d ask ahead of time. Checked edge cases / constraints. (3/5)

I moved to other projects, and forgot about our collaboration. But I took the habit of challenging myself with me.

Years later it CLICKED. I was mentoring a new grad & saw the obvious mistake they made. Should I tell them? Or should I... have them discover it on their own? (4/5)

That senior was mentoring the best way: coaching with questions. It’s the time-consuming for the mentor, but a very efficient way for a mentee to grow.

I never even noticed, or appreciated it at the time.

I’m since aiming to use this approach to help others grow. (5/5)