I agree with your first sentiment especially.

I’m fascinated by the master apprentice relationship in craftsmanship and other things like meditation practice (zen). It is a really powerful and - excuse this wishy washy term - natural principle.

But I think it is not as prevalent as it should be when it comes to programming and software development, which is a beautiful mix of problem solving, craft/skill, and the arts of communication and organization. It is driven by experience/practice and pragmatism but also creativity and synthesis. This paradox yearns for mentorship.

Gladly we have some excellent thinkers and communicators in our culture and history. And the internet. But I feel as an industry we don’t do as much as we should to further our craftsmanship.

I agree. I have been unsuccessfully looking for a SWE/programming mentor for years. I am now back in school, working on a PhD at a CS department and I am still facing the same problem. Curiously, I have had no difficulty finding mentors in other areas, e.g., modeling, psychology. I often wonder if I am doing something wrong or is mentoring simply not a part of the SWE culture.

I really like that idea. I use it a lot in my own work. For example, working through the sample sheets for an MIT opencourseware or working on learning a Data Science problem. Focus on how you construct your habits to learn more.

yeah and because you "ship" something everyday, your pipeline gets put in place. You'll have no blockers, you can then spend more time on better results, the pipeline is ready to go for the shipping part, whatever that may be.

Some of my everyday pieces got so good they started rivalling with my quality work I spent days on.