# Ruby mentoring **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 3, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-mentoring/136556 "2008-05-03T16:59:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_TSRichter)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-mentoring/136556/1 "2008-05-03T16:59:52Z")
Luka luka’s recent messages here to the list have made me note something: there’s a lot of redundancy in answering questions on the mailing list because someone asks and a dozen people answer. (Too, I’ve noticed that a lot of times these threads expand out of control into show-off code tricks because Ruby is so much fun to play with…😉 What I’d like to propose is a Ruby mentoring program for newcomer like luka luka. A mentor would basically be a single point of contact for Ruby questions. If, for example, I were to be luka luka’s mentor, he would email me with his questions and I would answer those I know the answers to and research the answers (including forwarding the question here) to any I didn’t know. A mentor would have to have the following traits to be a good one: ``` 1. Patience for "stupid" questions. 2. A reasonable grasp of Ruby (not expert, but at least intermediate). 3. Good research skills. 4. Good teaching skills: instead of just answering the immediate question, show also the broader scope within which the question and answer lies. ``` Correspondingly, a mentor’s beneficiary needs to have a few traits to be a good match: ``` 1. A willingness to learn principles, not just immediate answers. 2. Patience to wait for answers. (Mentors would, after all, sleep sometimes.) 3. A willingness to learn how to learn. ``` How does this sound to the community? (Regardless, either way, luka luka, if you don’t want your inbox spammed with a thousand different answers to each of your questions, feel free to contact me directly with questions.) If it sounds OK, perhaps a web page could be set up as a registry of Ruby mentors complete with beneficiary reviews and comments? ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_TSRichter)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-mentoring/136556/2 "2008-05-03T17:22:09Z")
El Sábado, 3 de Mayo de 2008, Michael T. Richter escribió: > If, for example, I were to be luka luka’s mentor, he > would email me with his questions and I would answer those I know the > answers to and research the answers (including forwarding the question > here) to any I didn’t know. Doesn’t it break the concept of a maillist? this is: public questions and public responses so everyone can read them or search for them later and learn. > if you don’t want your inbox spammed with a thousand different > answers to each of your questions, Is’t easier to tell people not to ask a thread if there are already a correct response? IMHO, this is a typicall issue of any maillist, but the solution is not allowing individual questions, but showing how to do the questions, showing where and how to search before ask an already answered question and showing maillist rules. In any maillist there are always expert level people, intermediate level people and newbies. Maybe intermediate level people should reply to easy questions and expert level people just to intermediate or high level questions. The issue is that usually a expert spents time answering an easy question that any other guy with no so much level could answer perfectly. Just my opinion. Best regards. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_TSRichter)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-mentoring/136556/3 "2008-05-03T17:17:25Z")
Hi – On Sat, 3 May 2008, Michael T. Richter wrote: > Luka luka’s recent messages here to the list have made me note > something: there’s a lot of redundancy in answering questions on the > mailing list because someone asks and a dozen people answer. (Too, I’ve > noticed that a lot of times these threads expand out of control into > show-off code tricks because Ruby is so much fun to play with…😉 I’ll bet you’ll get at least a dozen answers to this one 🙂 > What I’d like to propose is a Ruby mentoring program for newcomer like > luka luka. A mentor would basically be a single point of contact for > Ruby questions. If, for example, I were to be luka luka’s mentor, he > would email me with his questions and I would answer those I know the > answers to and research the answers (including forwarding the question > here) to any I didn’t know. I don’t know; I really like discussing things here. It does get repetitive, and sometimes exasperating (though I feel better for having taken a 2-month hiatus recently). But it also has interesting ramifications, like when two people who answer end up talking to each other because they have different takes on how to do something. I’ve had lots of experiences on both sides of the fence of seeing/giving a suboptimal or just plain wrong answer and being corrected or enlightened. That said, I think that if you want to do it, you should, because that’s how these things should work. We don’t all have to agree or feel that it’s the right thing for us. David ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_TSRichter)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-mentoring/136556/4 "2008-05-03T17:25:41Z")
On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 7:59 AM, Michael T. Richter [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > What I’d like to propose is a Ruby mentoring program for newcomer like luka > luka. A mentor would basically be a single point of contact for Ruby > questions. If, for example, I were to be luka luka’s mentor, he would email > me with his questions and I would answer those I know the answers to and > research the answers (including forwarding the question here) to any I > didn’t know. I rarely post questions, just monitor the list to learn. Seeing multiple responses to questions, with answers from different perspectives, is invaluable. And the questions I don’t know are more important than the answers 🙂 No opposition to a mentoring program per se, but the list (and searchable list archives) are an important community resource; I’d hate to see that change. :imho! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_TSRichter)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2008, 5:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-mentoring/136556/5 "2008-05-03T17:38:37Z")
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Michael T. Richter wrote: | | What I’d like to propose is a Ruby mentoring program for newcomer like | luka luka. A mentor would basically be a single point of contact for | Ruby questions. If, for example, I were to be luka luka’s mentor, he | would email me with his questions and I would answer those I know the | answers to and research the answers (including forwarding the question | here) to any I didn’t know. [http://rubymentor.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl](http://rubymentor.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl) * * * Phillip G. Twitter: [twitter.com/cynicalryan](http://twitter.com/cynicalryan) Blog: [http://justarubyist.blogspot.com](http://justarubyist.blogspot.com) At the beginning of the cask and at the end take thy fill, but be saving in the middle; for at the bottom saving comes too late. Let the price fixed with a friend be sufficient, and even dealing with a brother call in witnesses, but laughingly. ~ – Hesiod (c. 700 BC) ~ – Works and Days, Line 366 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - [http://enigmail.mozdev.org](http://enigmail.mozdev.org) iEUEARECAAYFAkgchkIACgkQbtAgaoJTgL+IjgCfYg0rgDWqpfqKB7HNotW44Sce cJ8AliooQ9uDrHcBRBJNkGc8BwP4CxM= =h7vy -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Michael\_TSRichter](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_TSRichter)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2008, 9:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-mentoring/136556/6 "2008-05-06T09:48:08Z")
On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 4:59 PM, Michael T. Richter [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > What I’d like to propose is a Ruby mentoring program for newcomer like luka > luka. A mentor would basically be a single point of contact for Ruby > questions. If, for example, I were to be luka luka’s mentor, he would email > me with his questions and I would answer those I know the answers to and > research the answers (including forwarding the question here) to any I > didn’t know. I think the problem is that people won’t know when they’re good mentors and not. I’m sure that if I chose to mentor, I’d sometimes give a lousy answer to a question _while thinking I was giving a good answer and had no need to do research_. In fact, psychology seems to tell us that we’re most likely to think we’re competent when we’re not: [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/18/MN73840.DTL](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/18/MN73840.DTL) As an example of this, look at the recent “Integer Regexp” thread. Apart from sharing the concern about using nil for infinity, I was fairly happy with the contribution I made to that thread. I saw it as a simple, easy solution to the problem domain, and would have felt no need to send that off to the mailing list if I was mentoring - the solution seemed obvious, and I didn’t really think that there was any other relevant way to do it. Yet, if I had been a mentor and had done that, I would (A) have missed that it didn’t seem to be so obvious to everybody (as several other solutions were proposed and nobody else posted the solution I gave), and (B) would have missed Ara Howard’s beautiful solution based on hacking the existing RegExp engine. So, I was incompetent in that area and thought I was quite competent. And, being shown my own incompetence in such ways is what I learn most from - including seeing other people’s “obvious” solutions. So, I personally feel that this, while sometimes repetitive, is one of the most productive uses of the mailing list. Eivind.