AI Killed Stack Overflow (and why that sucks)

18 hours ago

The author recalls struggling to ask a question on Stack Overflow, spending 20 minutes formatting code and detailing the issue, only to have it closed as a duplicate, but realized this process was a valuable learning experience.
Writing a clear question on Stack Overflow taught problem-stating skills crucial for programming, whereas LLMs like ChatGPT allow users to skip this step, leading to superficial solutions and repeated misunderstandings.
Stack Overflow emphasized that most problems have been solved by others, encouraging clear communication for community benefit, while LLMs treat each problem as unique and may not foster learning or search skills.
Being marked as a duplicate on Stack Overflow directed users to existing answers and improved their searching abilities, unlike LLMs that may provide incorrect or subpar responses without such guidance.
New engineers relying on LLMs often lack debugging skills when the model is wrong, spending hours without examining code, and miss out on developing the ability to formulate good questions or solve problems independently.
The decline of Stack Overflow and reliance on LLMs risks depleting the shared knowledge base, as fewer new questions and answers are contributed, potentially harming future learning and problem-solving resources.

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