Developers are natural self-learners. We've mastered complex frameworks from documentation, debugged obscure issues with Stack Overflow, and built entire applications from tutorials. So when it comes to career development and personal growth, the question naturally arises: can we just coach ourselves?
After years of both self-directed learning and working with professional coaches and mentors, I've learned that the answer isn't simply yes or no. It's about understanding when each approach works best and how to maximize the effectiveness of both.
Let's break down the trade-offs like we would any technical decision: what are the constraints, what are we optimizing for, and what's the most effective path to our desired outcome?