[henrik_w]

The problem with mentoring programmers is: who is a good mentor? Looking back at when I started coding, very few of the senior people there would not have been good mentors. They simply weren't good enough. They would have taught me the wrong things.

Also, of course we need more good developers. The problem is that there aren't enough good people to be found (this is not a problem of too few places where you learn to code). Plus, the demand for more software seems pretty limitless.

[scrabble]

Yes. There's also difficulty in finding mentors. There are sites that pop up claiming to offer software mentorship, but most seem to be just people who are willing to help you with an issue you're having with your code. That is not a good mentor-protege relationship.

[xradionut]

There's also a problem finding decent students/coworkers that listen. I don't know how many times I've made suggestions and recommendations, just to be ignored.

I co-lead a local programming user group and we commonly help people. Frequently we encounter people that want us to fix the bug in one line of code and don't want help in fixing the structure, the function, the readability or overall program.

[henrik_w]

Exactly. Not enough developers care enough to be either good mentors or good mentees.