Aps

At my day job, I have a senior tech architect (as per role) - who is supposed to mentor me to his role. Lets call him Mr. X

I'm confused if its a good thing to get mentored from him and change certain behavior in myself to elevate upto that role . The confusion arises bcoz I have found myself having opposite approaches to work. And I am not too sure about what is right.

Before I begin, I'd like to mention that I look at Mr.X as somebody who's technically capable (not great, but not bad), has been in that role since long, can get things done and obviously has more exp. compared to me (6-7 years higher than mine)

Here are few examples -

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On tech:
I say use JSON in web apps - Mr. X thinks JSON is bad
X says that we should be using "special character" separated strings - without using a lib/wrapper that hides the underlying implementation.

On customers:
Example: A customer is on verge of cancelling the deal (large deal size). Customer has a problem that has not been solved for a month and is partially created due to their customization.
I say - let's help them resolve the complete issue even if that means a bit of extra effort.
X says - let's handle it diplomatically  - let's solve our part of the problem, and let the customer solve their issues.

On functionality:
I say - Let's not restrict functionality by additional limits added by us. Example: Grid record grouping works by default.
X says - Let's disable that functionality. We don't want to support grouping on grids


On Genericness: I prefer to write generic code - even if its a bit complex (not very complex). X doesn't like that. (time is not a problem)
For example, I say - Let's put in 10 more days and make a generic solution to create similar forms for 30 db-tables ..
X says - Lets make those by copy-pasting - and later we will think about making it generic


While his arguments don't sound completely illogical. I do find those misaligned many times.

Additionally:
X has very good memory - he can remember a lot of complex functionality across different versions of the product. We have 3-4 releases every year.

I don't tend to remember so much by default(i.e. I have put in a lot of consistent effort). I have a very much derivative approach to remember stuff. That implies, that I have to keep lengthier stuff simple and in patterns - if I need to remember it.

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What do you suggest?