What this post does not talk about is a different customer: the person who is searching for programming advice.
SO is useful, but it is often awful. For instance, most Python examples on SO were written for Python 2, thus you need to add parenthesis if you want to cut and paste them into the Python 3 REPLs.
Many coders will accept the excuse that having to manually insert parenthesis "keeps you own the ball" or "helps you learn", etc. No, it's the kind of machine stupidity that we have to dispense with to achieve artificial intelligence.
Often I get five or six competing answers. Sometimes the best one is at the top. Sometimes the one at the top has a comment that says the author of the post and the original poster both agree it is wrong and that you should ignore it and scroll down to the one below.
Meanwhile, the Q&A format means that I may have to scroll through a large amount of incorrect source code before finally finding the two or three lines I really need.
Those small things add up because I am juggling a number of balls in the air as I work, and I just don't need any cognitive trash.
If you program in Python, Java, Ruby, Rust, Javascript, etc. you may find that your biggest head scratchers have do with integration with and the choice of third-party libraries -- discussion of which is severely curtailed on SO.
I am fascinated with the discussion about "People asking insufficiently detailed questions" because that is one of the great unresolved problems of Hacker News -- "Ask HN:" is choked with many cries for help which can only be replied to with "We need to know more about this to give you a real answer" that frequently don't get answered.
SO is useful, but it is often awful. For instance, most Python examples on SO were written for Python 2, thus you need to add parenthesis if you want to cut and paste them into the Python 3 REPLs.
Many coders will accept the excuse that having to manually insert parenthesis "keeps you own the ball" or "helps you learn", etc. No, it's the kind of machine stupidity that we have to dispense with to achieve artificial intelligence.
Often I get five or six competing answers. Sometimes the best one is at the top. Sometimes the one at the top has a comment that says the author of the post and the original poster both agree it is wrong and that you should ignore it and scroll down to the one below.
Meanwhile, the Q&A format means that I may have to scroll through a large amount of incorrect source code before finally finding the two or three lines I really need.
Those small things add up because I am juggling a number of balls in the air as I work, and I just don't need any cognitive trash.
If you program in Python, Java, Ruby, Rust, Javascript, etc. you may find that your biggest head scratchers have do with integration with and the choice of third-party libraries -- discussion of which is severely curtailed on SO.
I am fascinated with the discussion about "People asking insufficiently detailed questions" because that is one of the great unresolved problems of Hacker News -- "Ask HN:" is choked with many cries for help which can only be replied to with "We need to know more about this to give you a real answer" that frequently don't get answered.