[baby]

I see mentorship as an excellent shortcut to self-improvement, as it is a good way to quickly get quality feedback. But finding people that you can model works as well. I've personally learned a lot just looking at how other peers approached problems. If you work in an environment where there is no true role model, you often end up becoming the role model yourself, as you decide on what is important or not. At this point, the internet is your community, and if you work with your office's door closed, you might dig yourself into a hole.

[formercoder]

Very true. I went to a large tech company after the small one in search of that. Unfortunately I didn’t see anyone in roles potentially ahead of mine where I’d look at their job and think “that’s what I want to work towards.” Now I have found that in my current role and I’m settling in for the long run to get there.

[baby]

> I didn’t see anyone in roles potentially ahead of mine where I’d look at their job and think [...]

That's interesting, it might mean that you're doing a really good job.

[formercoder]

Don’t think I follow?

[fenici]

Exactly the point of my post - OP doesn't have a mentor so he reached out to HN. In this case we're his mentors. Consider my post in the context of me trying to provide advice as a mentor. I am not sure how this is interpreted as being anti-mentor.