Someone comes to you stuck on a bug, and it is tempting to fix the bug and move on.
You solve it, they say thanks, everyone feels productive.
But you just missed the real chance.
The bug in front of them is temporary.
The person is not.
So before you dive into the fix, slow down and look at who is asking.
Are they stuck because they lack a piece of knowledge, or because they doubt themselves?
Are they rushing because a deadline scares them, or because nobody told them it is fine to ask early?
The problem on the screen is almost never the whole story.
When you mentor the person and not just the problem, you ask a different set of questions.
Not only what is broken, but how are you feeling about this project.
Not only here is the answer, but how did you get here and where did it start to feel hard.
You are looking past the symptom to the human working through it.
This does not mean turning every code review into a therapy session.
It means remembering that the person will hit a hundred more problems you will never see.
You cannot solve all of those for them.
But you can help them become someone who solves problems with more calm, more curiosity, and less fear.
That is the thing that outlasts you.
The bug gets fixed today and forgotten tomorrow.
The confidence you build in them shows up in every problem they meet for the rest of their career.
So fix the bug, sure.
But mentor the person.
That is the part that lasts.
– Asael Shinder
