The contrast between two mentors I had.

If you don’t know already, I have another blog, where I write about non-technical stuff. I wrote an article there, detailing my struggles to find a mentor as a blind person. The reason why I’m writing this article here is because having a mentor or a guide is a big plus when you start out in the world of computers.

Because unlike the 70s or 80s, programming a computer isn’t an easy task which you can just pick up and run with it. granted, things weren’t simple back then either, but you could do with one book back then, nowadays, you need a whole library of books.

But how can you look for the right books in this library, when you don’t even know what to look for? A mentor comes in useful during this exact scenario.

In this article, I will talk about the two mentors I had in my programming journey, because I have only two whom I can call mentors so far. You will learn how drastically different they are, and how just a way of teaching can scar you, and make you hate a technology.

My first mentor:

Back in 2018, I graduated my high school, and I was looking to start learning programming already, something which I had wanted to do since I was in my seventh grade. I learned to use a computer in my eighth grade, but due to the idiocy of adults around me, I wasn’t allowed to pursue programming until I graduated from high school. Expecting my school to teach me anything was an exercise in futility, but still I tried, was disappointed, and as a result I looked forward to my graduation.

Surprise, surprise, no one wanted to teach me due to my blindness. You might think I’m exaggerating, but I would go with my sister, with the whole presentation ready to explain how I could do all the coursework, with just a little bit of input from them; but each time I got a blank refusal before I could even start the damn presentation. As a blind student, you often have to sell yourself to the person who is going to teach you, otherwise you’ll be dropped faster than a used condom.

Finally, this guy who was running a company, and taught students on the side took pity on me, and I was successful enough to sell him on the skills I already had that he agreed to teach me. He started me out with C, perhaps to check my determination, and to see whether I will run off in just under a month. But I persisted. It was hard, programming was new to me, and there was this whole new way of thinking, which took me a while to get.

I really liked his teaching style. Explain just enough theory, go to practical examples, assign tasks based on those examples, and check the resulting code the next day, pointing out how else I could have performed the same task. I liked this style of teaching enough that I even used it during my own stint as a trainer. The student in question was actually very surprised when I actually showed them a practical example on their very first day, since they expected just to listen to a theoretical lecture.

But things did not end well for us. He, for whatever reason, didn’t want me to pursue programming, telling me to go prepare for the civil exams. After fifteen years of academic exams, I have acquired a deep hatred of exams and everything remotely associated with them. I also saw my father working as a government employee since my childhood, and needless to say, I’m unimpressed to say the least. I refuse to end up like him.

I cooked up so many plans, thinking I could help up in his company once I got competent enough. I wouldn’t even ask for money! I was happy to get the free experience. But all those plans turned to ashes because of our fallout.

My second mentor:

This guy came from a computer science background, did the whole college thing, and worked as a freelancer and in a company.

And he was a Java fanatic. Naturally, that was the language he chose to teach me. His teaching style was very different. Weeks of long theory with just few dry and boring examples, and then being told to come up with problems to solve myself.

Things didn’t end there. He often told me to commit everything to memory. Anyone who has worked with Java knows how large the language is; it is impossible to remember everything, and they are adding new things all the time. And yet, he expected me to remember everything, while he himself taught me using notes and online references. His explanations were confusing to say the least. Why Java wasn’t a compiled language, why Java was a compiled language, why Java is 100% object oriented, why Java is not 100% object oriented, he couldn’t decide what he wishes to teach me.

And by gods, all those lectures about superiority of Java over everything. Java is more secure. Java is so much better than c / C++ (There’s no such thing as C / C++!) Java is a sea; the more you do in it, the less it is. Java is the end-all and be-all of programming. Programming equals Java. Java, Java, Java.

If the language is so great, then why was he using an outdated version of it? Why didn’t he even knew the release cycle of his own language? Despite me showing him. He came up with a bullshit excuse, naturally. And if he is such a great Java programmer, why doesn’t he know that JavaScript and Java are two entirely different languages? He claimed to me that JavaScript is part of Java, but I must pay him extra to teach him. If he is such a great Java programmer, then why did he forget to close the damned streams at the end of the program, every, single, time?

He also dismissed my previous experience with C. I showed him a nice (maybe not-so-nice) example of sorting arrays, which I did for Code Abbey. Guess what? He dismissed that thing entirely. He even asked me what sorting is the very next day, expecting me to not know that. He also didn’t understand my limitations. As a blind user, we have a hard time with inaccessible UIs. But he still insisted, on shoving a non-accessible SQL IDE down my throat. He also taught me HTML, CSS, bootstrap, and gave me all sorts of web design projects, something which I’m not suited for. I still think I should have just learned HTML online, instead of paying for his front-end course.

Speaking of paying, this guy just wanted to sell me course after course. He was one of those people who will sell you courses, put you in debt, all the while telling you that you shouldn’t regret this, for you will end up in an FAANG company, and you will be able to pay off the said debt in a matter of months.

When I got fed up, and told him that I didn’t want to do any of his courses, and that he should only talk to me if he had some freelance projects for me, that was the last time we talked. I said that because he actually promised to teach me freelancing, which naturally he never did.

All I can say after these experiences is that do choose your mentors carefully. Still, despite the sour end of my relationship to my first mentor, if I had to choose, I'd take him any time of the day over the second mentor I had. Do you have your own experiences to share regarding mentors? Share them in the comments below!

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