The Goal of Stack Overflow, According to AllStack Overflow's two founders on the Related Things!site's goal
Introducing Stackoverflow.com, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
Stackoverflow is sort of like the anti-experts-exchange (minus the nausea-inducing sleaze and quasi-legal search engine gaming) meets wikipedia meets programming reddit. It is by programmers, for programmers, with the ultimate intent of collectively increasing the sum total of good programming knowledge in the world. No matter what programming language you use, or what operating system you call home. Better programming is our goal.
Stack Overflow Launches, Joel Spolsky, 2025-08-06
Twitter / codinghorror, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
Google has "don't be evil"; we think Stack Overflow llc's is "leave the Internet better than we found it"...
Stack Overflow Gives Back 2010, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
We believe our mission as a company is to make the internet better...
How to Write Without Writing, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
Consider this letter I received:
I'm not sure if you have thought about this side effect or not, but Stack Overflow has taught me more about writing effectively than any class I've taken, book I've read, or any other experience I have had before.
Yes, by God, we will trick you into becoming a better writer if that's what it takes – and it always does. Stack Overflow has many overtly gamelike elements, but it is a game in service of the greater good – to make the internet better, and more importantly, to make you better. Seeing my fellow programmers naturally improve their written communication skills while participating in a focused, expert Q&A community with their peers? Nothing makes me prouder.
Rubber Duck Problem Solving, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
At Stack Exchange, we insist that people who ask questions put some effort into their question, and we're kind of jerks about it.
But for good reason: we're not-so-subtly trying to help you help yourself, by teaching you Rubber Duck problem solving.
Stackoverflow is sort of like the anti-experts-exchange (minus the nausea-inducing sleaze and quasi-legal search engine gaming) meets wikipedia meets programming reddit. It is by programmers, for programmers, with the ultimate intent of collectively increasing the sum total of good programming knowledge in the world. No matter what programming language you use, or what operating system you call home. Better programming is our goal.
Introducing Stackoverflow.com, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
The site lit up instantly! People were asking questions and, for the most part, getting answers! […] I tried to ask a programming question for something I was working on and found that (a) it had already been asked (b) there were already good answers and (c) the search engine worked so well I never got a chance to post my question.
After all, for the next 20 years, this question will be the canonical place on the web where programmers will come to find out [about it].
Stack Overflow Launches, Joel Spolsky, 2025-08-06
Google has "don't be evil"; we think Stack Overflow llc's is "leave the Internet better than we found it".
Twitter / codinghorror, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
We believe our mission as a company is to make the internet better, […].
Stack Overflow Gives Back 2010, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
Have you ever noticed how certain questions come up again and again on Stack Overflow sites? […]
Really, people, do you want to be answering these same questions ten years from now?Stack Overflow is not meant to be a library of reference manuals. It's supposed to contain the same information as a library of reference manuals, in the form of millions of questions and answers. Combined with Google, that gives us the magical power of a library of reference manuals you never have to read! It's like, you got to the library, and there's a wizard there at the door, and you ask your question, and, instead of being told to read a book, you just got (are you sitting down?) the actual answer!
The Wikipedia of Long Tail Programming Questions, Joel Spolsky, 2025-08-06
Consider this letter I received:
I'm not sure if you have thought about this side effect or not, but Stack Overflow has taught me more about writing effectively than any class I've taken, book I've read, or any other experience I have had before. […]
Yes, by God, we will trick you into becoming a better writer if that's what it takes – and it always does. Stack Overflow has many overtly gamelike elements, but it is a game in service of the greater good – to make the internet better, and more importantly, to make you better. Seeing my fellow programmers naturally improve their written communication skills while participating in a focused, expert Q&A community with their peers? Nothing makes me prouder.
How to Write Without Writing, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
At Stack Exchange, we insist that people who ask questions put some effort into their question, and we're kind of jerks about it.
But for good reason: we're not-so-subtly trying to help you help yourself, by teaching you Rubber Duck problem solving.
Rubber Duck Problem Solving, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
Doesn't this kind of ignore […] rampant duplicates?
What is Stack Overflow’s goal?, Jeff Atwood, 2025-08-06
