Well, IMO there is only so much mentoring one can do. I recently resigned from a nice big corporate development shop where I was a Sr. Developer / Tech Lead. When I first got to the company, I worked with peers that were just as skilled as I was. They all moved to "other" roles on via promotions to other departments and moving to other organizations. After 2 years of being a Sr. Developer / Tech Lead, I found that I was being offered the same positions that my original set of peers had been offered. I did have the opportunity to move up the corporate ladder. However, finding myself to be more of a leader than a manager (and yes there is a difference), I looked at my current work situation and realized that my current set of peers consisted mostly of full time jr. developers fresh out of college, and consultants making more hourly rate than I was being paid on a salary basis. At that point I also realized that I was spending 80% of my time mentoring the jr. developers, the teams in India, and many of the contractors. This was fun for a while until I realized that my development skills were slipping. My skills were slipping because I wasnt being challenged by my peers. So, I decided to find a job where I felt like I would be challenged by my peers. I searched for a few months, being very picky regarding the company and the project, and finally landed a hot job with a new team, a new project, and a new direction for the company. I do agree that there is a bit of snobbery and eleiteism out there in the development world. I also agree that there are a lot of code monkeys out there as well. Personally, I choose to work with teams that will challenge me and for companies that enable my team to cut the crap and get some work done! As for the snobs I just ignore the egos and move along, and for the code monkeys, I try to help them where I can until they ask the same mundane questions again and again.