ANNOUNCEMENT

I am officially launching coaching services for software engineers.

• 2-hour private technical mentoring
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• Resume reviews

Check out my page here!

https://topmate.io/imliamodonnell

On to the newsletter ⬇️

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The Paradox Of Going Alone

If you want to go fast, go alone;

If you want to go far, go together...

A famous African proverb.

Life has constantly proven this to be true...

With one exception – Learning

Most of us inherently know that going alone is the fastest way to do most things. Grocery shopping, going to the gym, traveling. All faster when you're doing it by yourself.

Nobody to be responsible for.

Nobody to depend on.

Just you and the task at hand.

But the proverb leaves something important.

"If you want to go fast, go alone"... but only if you already know what you're doing.

When it comes to learning? A mentor will speed things up dramatically.

Think of a mentor as somebody who knows a city like the back of their hand. You just showed up in the city and want to get somewhere.

Which do you think would be faster:

• Getting help from somebody who knows where to go?
• Figuring it out by yourself?

We all know that asking for help will get you there much faster.

So when you're learning something new?

"If you want to go fast... go together"

This is the paradox of going alone.

In the beginning – It's faster to go together.

But at some point

Once you know what to do – It's faster to go alone.

Why Mentors Speed You Up

Simply put:

You don't know what you don't know...

But mentors DO know what you don't know.

Think of this situation.

New Developer:

"How do I create a login for my app?"

Well, that's a can of worms. So many questions to ask:

• What kind of app are you building?
• How do you plan to store a user's data?
• What kind of authentication pattern do you want to use?

And so many more questions...

Here are HUNDREDS of things a new developer might have to discover on their own before they are able to properly set up a login.

In other words – they don't know where they are going.

Ask the same questions to a mentor who has done it before?

They can give you an exact roadmap of what to do.

It could potentially save you days, weeks, or even months.

(trust me, I've wasted a lot of time struggling on my own)

Early on a mentor will save you more time than you are able to comprehend.

Not to mention all the other benefits:

• Somebody to do the journey with
• Encouragement when you doubt yourself
• Opportunities to ask any question and get an exact answer

How To Find Your Mentor

I've always seen there being 4 options here:

1. A mentor through your job
2. A generous friend
3. Pay for one

A Mentor Through Your Job

Some companies have great systems and mentor their engineers.

Generally:

These are mature companies with lots of extra resources

If you join a startup you most likely won't get a ton of support.

Ask when you are interviewing around "Do you have any mentoring opportunities?"

If they have a good system in place:

They will be eager to tell you

This is the best-case scenario in my head because you get two things:

1. You get paid to be mentored
2. You have clear and defined work to practice on.

The drawbacks?

• You have to already be good enough to get a job 😅
• Companies offering this aren't always easy to find

So what can new engineers do?

A Generous Friend

This one is obvious so I'll keep it short.

If you are lucky enough to have a close friend that

1. Knows how to do what you want to do
2. Is willing to help you for free

Leverage it!!!!

Pay For One

This is why I offer coaching services.

You gain a few things by paying for a mentor:

1. Access to somebody who knows how to do what you want to do
2. Payment puts pressure on them to deliver results for you
3. Payment puts pressure on you to get something out of it

Overall – mentoring is undervalued in today's culture.

I have paid thousands for several mentors in the past year.

Everyone offered niche services for things I was interested in:

• Starting a newsletter
• Building an online business
• Building a tiny house in the desert
• Moving to Columbia as an American

Mentors can get very specific

That is the main benefit

And every single one of them was worth it.

It's a mindset shift to start investing in yourself.

Every time I want to learn something new now?

I look for a mentor immediately.

Bonus: The AI Mentor

I know somebody will bring this up so I figured I would include it.

You can use AI as a mentor.

It is decent at giving you specific advice like a mentor would.

I use AI often in this fashion, but it never compares to a human mentor.

I will be honest with all of you when it catches up.

(and probably call it quits on coaching 😂)

But for now, I find it to be wrong to often, or give bad advice.

Several times at work:

• I ask AI how to do something
• Trust it and start with that approach
• Show what I'm doing to a more senior engineer
• They look at me like ???? no, we shouldn't do it that way
• I tell them i just got the idea from ChatGPT
• They laugh

For simple things – it works flawlessly.

For complicated things – not so much.

In general – If you're new I suggest finding a mentor.

Hope this helps!

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Thank you for reading this week's newsletter.

I appreciate all of you who read to the end.

Book a coaching call with me if you want to chat or have any questions.

Email me at swdlodonnell@gmail.com with any questions

Check out my free course if you are learning to code

Until next week 👋