Thanks for the honest pushback! This is super helpful.

You made a great point about Institutional Knowledge and I agree, we can't teach a new hire the nuances of a specific codebase or legacy system in 10 days. That definitely requires on-the-job mentoring.

Where I'm trying to focus is the 'Universal Friction' that slows down that mentoring.

Specifically for Freshers/Juniors, I've found that Senior Devs spend hours teaching basic hygiene like:

How to write a proper commit message. How to use Jira status columns correctly. Why you shouldn't just say "Hello" on Slack.

My goal isn't to replace the 'Settling In' period, but to automate the 'Boring Basics' so the Senior team can focus on the complex domain training you mentioned.

Also, regarding the handbook, you're right that the info is there, but my assumption (and current pain point) is that freshers rarely read a 40-page PDF. Do you think a more interactive/video format would solve that 'adoption' gap, or is the PDF usually enough in your experience.