This is a pattern of behavior I see in people, that they think they need a "mentor" to get good at anything. I've even had people explicitly ask me to be their mentor. Like, people here, on HN, reading my comments, contacting me through my email address in my profile, asking me to be their mentor.

Frankly, now that I'm experienced, if someone were to agree to be my mentor when I was a beginner, I should have been suspect of their expertise, because I don't know anyone who is actually any good at what they do who has time to do anything called mentoring.

Where does this idea of mentorship come from? I have never seen it. I've had examples in my life of people to look up to, but when people talk about mentorship they seem to be talking about some sort of creepazilla relationship where the student sits at the feet of the master and receives wisdom. Yeah, no, that doesn't exist in the real world, at least not for the vast majority of people.

If that's what it takes to be successful, to be reallly good at anything, then buddy, we're all in a world of hurt. It's an appealing idea, but who the hell does it ever actually happen to? I'm convinced it's a fantasy.