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It's suprising somebody gives 70k answers, but asks no questions. I wonder why that is. Does he know everything about his area and not interested in other areas

It's suprising somebody gives 70k answers, but asks no questions. I wonder why that is. Does he know everything about his area and not interested in other areas?

lordnacho 6y ago
What I've found over the years is as I get more experienced, I can cobble together whatever I want from existing SO answers plus the rest of the internet. My volume of asks has declined enormously over the years. He might simply already have been at that end of the experience curve when he joined.
- umvi 6y ago
  Same for me. I only ask questions now if there is no documentation for something or it is a bleeding edge technology. I haven't asked a python or C++ question in probably 5 years because the existing answers are all excellent and I can glean what I need from one or more of them. SO really shines once you've cleared the minimum bar in terms of computing knowledge. From what I hear it's not super great for people that haven't cleared the minimum bar yet (students, absolute beginners, etc.), but it's truly a gem of the internet (I didn't use it as a student because I didn't learn about its existence until I already graduated college - plus, it launched when I was a sophomore in college so it really hadn't built up a good answer base until later).
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    SO can also really shine given how it illuminates how you can rarely go deep enough. Even after 35 years as a highly technical programmer, I still regularly read stuff on SO and have an "oh really?" reaction over and over again.
- MrPowers 6y ago
  I've found that SO is great for questions that aren't too basic, but aren't too hard either. Overly basic questions get downvoted. Really hard questions don't get answered (not in the Spark niche at least). Questions that people with 2-4 years of experience ask seem to be the bread & butter of SO.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- hombre_fatal 6y ago
  One of the most valuable lessons you learn with experience is how to be resourceful. If you look at what's being asked on SO, it's mostly beginners who didn't know how to divine a solution nor read source code.
karaterobot 6y ago
Good question. Mere speculation: Maybe he enjoys the asymmetry, and has some other accounts on which he asks questions.
craftinator 6y ago
Too busy answering to ask questions.
praptak 6y ago
For areas that aren't ultra new the space of good questions is kinda saturated. This is less true for answers - even with old questions with accepted answers you can gain points by providing a better answer. Not necessarily better in terms of pure information but maybe better edited or explained more clearly. And obviously you can still rack points by quickly answering the bad questions (before they get deduped or closed). Disclaimer: this is only about my experience, not implying anything about Gordon Linoff - I have zero knowledge about his record on SO.
- vmception 6y ago
  > And obviously you can still rack points by quickly answering the bad questions and your old very simple answers to common questions continue to rack up the most points you get points on stackoverflow by answering common problems. not much from contributing more nuanced indepth things I've pretty much found github issues to have the newer up to date discussions
toast0 6y ago
I've never been compelled to ask questions on SO. Often, I find a question similar enough to mine, but it wasn't answered, or the answer is clearly wrong, or sadly outdated. If I would ask, I would expect the same result, plus I'd have to wait around for it. Usually, I can just dig in and find the answer myself, but I was trying to get a solution quicker with search. Of course, I've only answered one question too, so maybe it's just not my kind of site.
jftuga 6y ago
Is it plausible that someone would use a different account to ask questions?
pierrebai 6y ago
What surprises me is that SO claims I'm not allowed to answer questions until i get points and suggest I ask questions... so how can he have not asked any and get started? That has always been a real put off at SO. They actively don't want me to answer.
- mark-r 6y ago
  I thought there wasn't a reputation requirement for writing an answer? A lot of people seem to get their start by suggesting edits that later get accepted.
xxs 6y ago
I have left stackoverflow around 2011, still top 4% with - ~300 answers with a lots of community wiki posts and even more comments, some giveaway through bounty on random questions. I have not been compelled to ask anything. Stackoverflow format is not suited for hard questions, that would require personal research. It's not suitable format for a topic discussed in a mail list either. It's a nice tool for quick answers on an easy ones that would score well via quick searches. In other words. To post a question: I'd have to do my own research, followed by prototyping, testing, debugging. Be unable to reach anywhere, unable to get help by talking to peers directly. The topic should not be domain specific. Gather my thoughts, experience, etc. write them down and post a question. There has been a single case where a colleague of mine asked a question and it never got any attention whatsoever. We found the issue/solution few days later.
wiseleo 6y ago
People who ask questions are usually different from people who answer questions. I have significant presence on Quora where I wrote 8300+ answers and asked 98 questions in 10 years with 10057 followers. My monthly views are about 150000. Quora has different incentives for asking questions and answering them. I am also connected to a community of people who mostly ask questions and don't write answers. It is hard to ask a good question to which I can't find an answer. I ask questions for which there are no good existing answers and usually outside my realm of expertise. This is true for most other top contributors on Quora. Most of us ask very few questions.

It's suprising somebody gives 70k answers, but asks no questions. I wonder why that is. Does he know everything about his area and not interested in other areas?

lordnacho 6y ago

What I've found over the years is as I get more experienced, I can cobble together whatever I want from existing SO answers plus the rest of the internet. My volume of asks has declined enormously over the years. He might simply already have been at that end of the experience curve when he joined.

umvi 6y ago
Same for me. I only ask questions now if there is no documentation for something or it is a bleeding edge technology. I haven't asked a python or C++ question in probably 5 years because the existing answers are all excellent and I can glean what I need from one or more of them. SO really shines once you've cleared the minimum bar in terms of computing knowledge. From what I hear it's not super great for people that haven't cleared the minimum bar yet (students, absolute beginners, etc.), but it's truly a gem of the internet (I didn't use it as a student because I didn't learn about its existence until I already graduated college - plus, it launched when I was a sophomore in college so it really hadn't built up a good answer base until later).
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  SO can also really shine given how it illuminates how you can rarely go deep enough. Even after 35 years as a highly technical programmer, I still regularly read stuff on SO and have an "oh really?" reaction over and over again.
MrPowers 6y ago
I've found that SO is great for questions that aren't too basic, but aren't too hard either. Overly basic questions get downvoted. Really hard questions don't get answered (not in the Spark niche at least). Questions that people with 2-4 years of experience ask seem to be the bread & butter of SO.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
hombre_fatal 6y ago
One of the most valuable lessons you learn with experience is how to be resourceful. If you look at what's being asked on SO, it's mostly beginners who didn't know how to divine a solution nor read source code.

karaterobot 6y ago

Good question. Mere speculation: Maybe he enjoys the asymmetry, and has some other accounts on which he asks questions.

craftinator 6y ago

Too busy answering to ask questions.

praptak 6y ago

For areas that aren't ultra new the space of good questions is kinda saturated. This is less true for answers - even with old questions with accepted answers you can gain points by providing a better answer. Not necessarily better in terms of pure information but maybe better edited or explained more clearly. And obviously you can still rack points by quickly answering the bad questions (before they get deduped or closed). Disclaimer: this is only about my experience, not implying anything about Gordon Linoff - I have zero knowledge about his record on SO.

vmception 6y ago
> And obviously you can still rack points by quickly answering the bad questions and your old very simple answers to common questions continue to rack up the most points you get points on stackoverflow by answering common problems. not much from contributing more nuanced indepth things I've pretty much found github issues to have the newer up to date discussions

toast0 6y ago

I've never been compelled to ask questions on SO. Often, I find a question similar enough to mine, but it wasn't answered, or the answer is clearly wrong, or sadly outdated. If I would ask, I would expect the same result, plus I'd have to wait around for it. Usually, I can just dig in and find the answer myself, but I was trying to get a solution quicker with search. Of course, I've only answered one question too, so maybe it's just not my kind of site.

jftuga 6y ago

Is it plausible that someone would use a different account to ask questions?

pierrebai 6y ago

What surprises me is that SO claims I'm not allowed to answer questions until i get points and suggest I ask questions... so how can he have not asked any and get started? That has always been a real put off at SO. They actively don't want me to answer.

mark-r 6y ago
I thought there wasn't a reputation requirement for writing an answer? A lot of people seem to get their start by suggesting edits that later get accepted.

xxs 6y ago

I have left stackoverflow around 2011, still top 4% with - ~300 answers with a lots of community wiki posts and even more comments, some giveaway through bounty on random questions. I have not been compelled to ask anything. Stackoverflow format is not suited for hard questions, that would require personal research. It's not suitable format for a topic discussed in a mail list either. It's a nice tool for quick answers on an easy ones that would score well via quick searches. In other words. To post a question: I'd have to do my own research, followed by prototyping, testing, debugging. Be unable to reach anywhere, unable to get help by talking to peers directly. The topic should not be domain specific. Gather my thoughts, experience, etc. write them down and post a question. There has been a single case where a colleague of mine asked a question and it never got any attention whatsoever. We found the issue/solution few days later.

wiseleo 6y ago

People who ask questions are usually different from people who answer questions. I have significant presence on Quora where I wrote 8300+ answers and asked 98 questions in 10 years with 10057 followers. My monthly views are about 150000. Quora has different incentives for asking questions and answering them. I am also connected to a community of people who mostly ask questions and don't write answers. It is hard to ask a good question to which I can't find an answer. I ask questions for which there are no good existing answers and usually outside my realm of expertise. This is true for most other top contributors on Quora. Most of us ask very few questions.