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Stackoverflow is the prime example for how a company can generate tremenduous value without making that much money. It's difficult to estimate its contribution

Stackoverflow is the prime example for how a company can generate tremenduous value without making that much money. It's difficult to estimate its contribution to the world economy quantitatively, but I'd definitely say billions, many many billions.

chubot 10y ago
How do you know they don't make that much money? I didn't see that anywhere in the blog post. I agree that they make an enormous contribution to the world economy. Joel really did knock it out of the park -- remember expertsexchange? His goal was to get rid of that and it worked.
- fredley 10y ago
  Or as Joel likes to call it 'that hyphenated site'
- codinghorror 10y ago
  Joel, eh? Think you might be forgetting someone in there, somewhere? ;)
  - ocoster 10y ago
    You may be gone, but not forgotten, never that, Jeff :)
  - mattmanser 10y ago
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always got the impression from the podcasts that while you both designed it, it was more you actually programming it. I could be mis-remembering after all this time! Didn't you quit your job and program it while Joel was still mainly focused on Fog Creek day-to-day?
    - codinghorror 10y ago
      Yes, it was Joel's famous "servant leadership". We brainstormed ideas once a week on weekly calls (which became the podcast) and he trusted me (and Geoff and Jarrod, the first two people at the company after the founders) to build Stack Overflow as we saw fit. Community feedback was a huge part of that feedback cycle once the beta was live.
  - morbidhawk 10y ago
    This is what I love about HN, occasionally the author of the software being discussed will randomly show up in the comment thread
- sah2ed 10y ago
  > Joel really did knock it out of the park -- remember expertsexchange? His goal was to get rid of that and it worked. You left out the other co-founder: codinghorror [1]! FTFY: Joel [and Jeff Atwood] really did knock it out of the park -- remember expertsexchange? [Their] goal was to get rid of that and it worked. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=codinghorror https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=codinghorror
z3t4 10y ago
i think they are like a bank. Value is inserted by people asking and answering questions.
therealdrag0 10y ago
Good point. A thought provoking example I had pointed out to me recently is the GPS system, which was built and is maintained by the US government but is a free public service. The amount of public value from it is astronomical.

chubot 10y ago

How do you know they don't make that much money? I didn't see that anywhere in the blog post. I agree that they make an enormous contribution to the world economy. Joel really did knock it out of the park -- remember expertsexchange? His goal was to get rid of that and it worked.

fredley 10y ago
Or as Joel likes to call it 'that hyphenated site'
codinghorror 10y ago
Joel, eh? Think you might be forgetting someone in there, somewhere? ;)
- ocoster 10y ago
  You may be gone, but not forgotten, never that, Jeff :)
- mattmanser 10y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always got the impression from the podcasts that while you both designed it, it was more you actually programming it. I could be mis-remembering after all this time! Didn't you quit your job and program it while Joel was still mainly focused on Fog Creek day-to-day?
  - codinghorror 10y ago
    Yes, it was Joel's famous "servant leadership". We brainstormed ideas once a week on weekly calls (which became the podcast) and he trusted me (and Geoff and Jarrod, the first two people at the company after the founders) to build Stack Overflow as we saw fit. Community feedback was a huge part of that feedback cycle once the beta was live.
- morbidhawk 10y ago
  This is what I love about HN, occasionally the author of the software being discussed will randomly show up in the comment thread
sah2ed 10y ago
> Joel really did knock it out of the park -- remember expertsexchange? His goal was to get rid of that and it worked. You left out the other co-founder: codinghorror [1]! FTFY: Joel [and Jeff Atwood] really did knock it out of the park -- remember expertsexchange? [Their] goal was to get rid of that and it worked. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=codinghorror https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=codinghorror

z3t4 10y ago

i think they are like a bank. Value is inserted by people asking and answering questions.

therealdrag0 10y ago

Good point. A thought provoking example I had pointed out to me recently is the GPS system, which was built and is maintained by the US government but is a free public service. The amount of public value from it is astronomical.