Why Stack Overflow Is Part of My Daily Routine
It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed — Napoleon Hill
If you’ve ever been interested in programming or anything related to and been around the net long enough, you’ve come across Stack Overflow, accidentally or on purpose.
What is Stack Overflow?
Stack Overflow is a question and answer site for professional and enthusiast programmers. It’s built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we’re working together to build a library of detailed answers to every question about programming.
In 2013, I submitted my first question to Stack Overflow and received negative feedback, resulting in the closure of the question. At the time, I was unaware of the reason for this response. I had simply requested a complete solution to a homework problem and did not anticipate receiving negative comments.
- You should solve your homework by yourself
- What have you tried?
- Be more detailed
Why were experienced programmers being so rude when my question was simple for them? I left the community feeling discouraged, but a few months later, I decided to give it another try and asked a more specific and well-formatted question. This time, senior members helped by correcting errors and improving the presentation of my question.
Not only did I receive positive feedback, a thorough answer, and tips on how to ask better questions, but I also earned my first reputation points. This experience encouraged me to keep using Stack Overflow, and I found myself visiting the site daily to check for updates on my question or to help others. I came across a question similar to mine and, before answering, I verified my solution by running it in my IDE, which allowed me to understand the issue more fully and feel more confident in my answer. This was when I became addicted to the community.
Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes — Peter Drucker
Navigating through Stack Overflow allows me to explore new areas and stay current with new technologies. I can select the topics that interest me and filter questions accordingly.
By reading more posts from other users each day, I continuously learn new things. I often find myself investigating questions that catch my interest, challenging myself to find solutions to these problems. Through this process, I conduct research, experiment with new approaches, and delve into different fields. Not only am I able to assist the original poster, but I also gain new knowledge in the process. I can also receive feedback on my answers, provide comments, make edits, vote, and more on the posts.
Stack Overflow is the place for programming questions, it’s an endless source of knowledge, use it.
Summary
To get out the most of Stack Overflow, you should first know your problem in depth —” A problem well stated is a problem half solved”. Once you’ve realized your solutions don’t work, and you know you’re stuck and need help, then it’s the time to post your question. Make sure that your post includes a detailed description of the problem, include relevant code snippets, and put efforts into formatting it correctly.
