> a change in the types of questions I tend to ask as I have become a more experienced programmer. That is probably 50% of it. I find myself using google to so

> a change in the types of questions I tend to ask as I have become a more experienced programmer. That is probably 50% of it. I find myself using google to solve problems about once a day these days. When I first started, it was easily 5-10x that. > I have a hard time telling whether this reflects a change in developer culture online over the years SO no longer really tolerates hard questions that an experienced programmer asks. For the past 4 years, every question I've had that I couldn't find the answer to I've had the question closed or the answers being badly flawed. Admittedly, my sample size is only ~12 questions. The reason for this is they really, really want to restrict the playing field to questions that are jr to mid-level with clear, math/code correct answers. When you get into more complex problems, there is usually trade-offs involved that cause moderators to close questions. (i.e. How do you X as securely as you can while still enabling Y use case that breaks the most secure option available? This isn't ideal obviously but the trade off is acceptable.) The other problem is this discourages answers for "new" stuff because they'll often close questions as duplicates even if you are asking about Version 8 and the answer from 2 years ago is about Version 7. The problem is, if you are experienced, you already know how to solve answers for Version 7 (because you've used it for 2 years) while Version 8 is new.