This seems like a fairly narrow view on how people learn from others. The assumption the author makes is that if you look up the answer in the back of the book

This seems like a fairly narrow view on how people learn from others. The assumption the author makes is that if you look up the answer in the back of the book you won't think about how it's done. Yes, some people will do this for the sake of time, but in my experience I think SO does a good job of encouraging a learning environment by requesting answers provide context. The example given by the author about moving buttons in iOS tries to make the case that there are unknown implications to finding a "hack" to solve a tough problem. I look for this type of information on SO all the time – usually not to implement the exact solution but to learn how others have solved similar problems that will help me think about the specific issue I am tackling. That's how I learn. Not for everybody, and I recognize we all do things differently.