Small advice: if you are lucky enough to work with FOSS, just read the source code. Most of SO questions can be answered either by looking at concrete implement

Small advice: if you are lucky enough to work with FOSS, just read the source code. Most of SO questions can be answered either by looking at concrete implementation details or by skimming through the code to get general concept. It gives more accurate answers more quickly than people on SO ever could, because 1) it doesn't require waiting for someone to read and answer your question 2) it doesn't require lossy conversion to natural language and back 3) "live" source code is probably more tested and more optimized than synthetic examples that someone came up with in 5 minutes and never ran As soon as you develop the skill of finding relevant functions in large code bases, SO becomes mostly unnecessary. I never registered there, never asked a question, and don't browse it that often. I clone source code of my most commonly used tools locally just for quick grepping, and use full-text github search for more exotic staff. P.S. Funny how the article keeps calling SO "totalitarian", while it is, in fact, a painfully precise model of democracy.