Yes and no.

Yes in the sense that learning from people who have more experience/skill than you is always a smart idea.

No in the sense that, if you cannot identify "a mentor," this doesn't mean you cannot be or are not a good developer. Also, This doesn't mean you have to even identify someone as "MY MENTOR" at all. For example, I don't have someone that I would call "MY MENTOR" as in, someone who full-time mentors me. However, I have a lot of really smart folks I know whom I can run ideas by and ask questions to whenever needed. Therefore, I have mentors.. But none of them are "full-time mentors of Todd" if that makes sense. I sometimes don't like the advice "get a mentor" because it implies that there is some formal mentorship that happens when in reality, you are probably just two colleagues sharing knowledge. You want to be able to help that person too where needed and even if they've been doing it 15 years and you 1, I guarantee they can learn some things from you too. You should not burden anyone for your education.

Also, although I identify as a self-taught engineer, I feel the concept is somewhat silly. For example, what does "not self taught" really even mean? There are no college classes or degrees that can really make you an engineer... You have to do that yourself anyway. Plus, if I'm self-taught by reading books, coding, and asking questions... Am I really self-taught??? No. I'm a student of the books and folks I ask question to.

Finally, many great mentors will simply guide you in the right direction and tell you to "figure it out" anyway.

I can't understand anybody saying “Yes, but…” or “Yes, until…”

Mentors are the key educators in any trade, and I'm definitely considering web development a trade! Books can help teach theory, classroom-style education is good for teaching the foundations, and you'll only grow as a person by writing your own code and experimenting - but at any and all stages of learning having a mentor who has travelled the path ahead of you can help you

• ask the right question
• understand the building blocks you're working with
• show you other ways the same thing can be done
• expose you to ideas just barely beyond your learning

It may mean over time as you grow you need different mentors. And more importantly - it means after you've been learning for a while even if you're not a master yet there are probably folks following the same path behind you that you can be a mentor to.

I think mentorship is the biggest part of web-related education that's missing, so please seek out learners and mentor those following in your footsteps! (Ironically, mentoring is also a very rich educational experience, if you don't mentor others you have no idea the learning you're missing out on yourself!)

Yes, I am a self taught developer, I never went to college. My skills and knowledge increased a lot faster by having better programmers around me looking at my pull request and making suggestions. So yes I think it is worth it.

Yes, regardless of being self-taught or not.

A good mentor will relentlessly expect more of you... :)

I don't think its a matter of self-taught, but a matter of how proficient you are. If you are just starting out, a mentor will work wonders. Later on, however, writing actual code and following latest developments is way better imho.

It's not a bad idea but mentors, books, conferences, etc. will only take you so far.

The best teaching on coding you can have is code itself. Read a lot of code, write some yourself, rinse and repeat; you'll learn quickly.