Code rarely tells you the intent or general principles behind its design. Mentoring does. This is ultimately more important than the finished code itself.
Reading code is valuable. It's not a substitute for actually working with experienced people on real projects. I can look through the Linux source all I want, but that doesn't tell me what it was like to sit down at a blank editor window and start writing an operating system, or how Linux evolved from simple test program to terminal emulator to bootable OS.
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Code rarely tells you the intent or general principles behind its design. Mentoring does. This is ultimately more important than the finished code itself.
Reading code is valuable. It's not a substitute for actually working with experienced people on real projects. I can look through the Linux source all I want, but that doesn't tell me what it was like to sit down at a blank editor window and start writing an operating system, or how Linux evolved from simple test program to terminal emulator to bootable OS.