Teaching Is Learning Twice
we have a new person on the team. they asked me to help them onboard.
me. teaching. wild.
the role reversal
a year ago i was the one asking all the questions. now someone's asking me.
my first thought: "they should ask someone more senior."
my second thought: "wait, i actually know things now."
what i've been doing
- pair programming on initial tasks
- explaining the codebase structure
- answering questions about how things work
- helping debug their first issues
- generally being available
it's not a formal mentor role. just being helpful to a colleague.
the unexpected benefit
explaining things reveals gaps in my own understanding.
them: "why does this system work this way?"
me, internally: "wait, why DOES this work this way?"
goes to investigate
learns something new
comes back with an actual answer
teaching forces clarity. if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough.
things i've relearned by explaining
- why our distributed training setup is designed as it is
- the historical reasons for certain code patterns
- fundamentals i'd forgotten because they became automatic
- perspectives i took for granted
what good mentorship looks like (from the receiving end)
thinking about what helped me when i was new:
- patience with "dumb" questions
- explaining the why, not just the what
- pointing to resources instead of just answering
- treating learning curves as normal
- celebrating small wins
i'm trying to be the mentor i needed.
the emotional aspect
seeing someone newer still struggle with things i struggled with is validating.
"oh, this IS confusing. i wasn't just bad at it."
and watching them figure things out is genuinely satisfying.
am i qualified for this?
imposter syndrome says no.
evidence says: i have a year of experience they don't have. i know things they need to know. that's enough.
qualification isn't about having all answers. it's about being a step ahead and willing to help.
what i'm learning
- teaching is a skill i want to develop
- knowledge compounds when shared
- helping others feels good
- i know more than i give myself credit for
they asked me to explain backpropagation today. i did. it made sense to both of us. growth.