there's this idea that you should lie to the student at first so they can get the basic idea, and then build up to the more accurate thing.

This is bullshit.

It's so much more understandable to say, "Here's what we're going to get to, but let's start with a simplified version..."
Or to say, "Here's the history of..."

The only problem is externality pricing.

Building https://negationgame.com

When I mentor, I start with a question and let them brainstorm for a while.

Once they reach one of the concepts, I'll ask them to double down on that thought process and share more information during the journey.

Mostly! If not, I do a little bit of spoon-feeding!! But it's hard to achieve in a time bound settings.

this is brilliant, do they normally get to the right concept? What kinds of topics have you used this with? (guessing softer things, not like science / math)