IRFAN AS A MENTOR
Irfan was there at every stage of my project, and that mattered more than I expected going in. He has a lot of mentees, but replies still came back quickly, and he was clearly across the detail of what I was actually building rather than offering generic advice that could have applied to anyone.
The most useful thing he did was slow me down. Whenever I brought him a plan, he asked the kind of questions that sent me back to think it through again before I wrote any code. A few times that meant giving up on an approach I was attached to, and the second or third version was always better than the first.
He was direct about what needed improving without ever making it discouraging, and he left me room to work things out for myself instead of just handing over answers. I'd recommend him to anyone starting a project.
