I often find it easier to learn how to do a new thing when I'm shown how to do the new thing and can ask questions about the new thing to someone who understands how the thing works. It could be that this pair approach can actually help skill development

I vastly prefer this approach to being onboarded.

Documentation is always way too vague about or just plain missing critical details and too specific about things I don't care about.

But... 1) The long tail. You may never face a similar problem in the future. 2) Surely being forced to figure it out on your own is not the most productive and healthy manner of improving your skills. All human performance areas have teachers and coaches.

> Having to solve a problem that you're not _initially_ equipped to solve is often how you _become_ equipped...

That's been true in my experience. Almost every step forward in my career development has involved a very uncomfortable and uncertain adjustment period. It helps immensely to have people around who are curious, receptive to questions and who can empathize and provide some guidance.

It seems that the more heavily project-management-oriented a workplace is, the less slack there is for this kind of career development. It's not uncommon to have workplace cultures where one has to prove themselves in some kind of "sink-or-swim" or "show-how-you've-suffered" scenario before they are deemed "worthy" of consideration. It's sort of visible in the culture of stackoverflow which I think of as a kind of microcosm of the attitude in many workplaces.

My previous company called that somewhat uncomfortable feeling where you sort of know how to proceed but not completely the "learning edge", and it's a term I really like. I always aim to keep myself and my team on that learning edge to keep people growing (avoiding complacency/stagnation) while not exposing them to too many roadblocks. It's a constant balancing act.