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People like helping people, it gives them a sense of self-worth. Answering questions also can make you feel smart. Now think about how many important websites

People like helping people, it gives them a sense of self-worth. Answering questions also can make you feel smart. Now think about how many important websites are functionally built by free labor due to this: Wikipedia, Stack Overflow, subreddits you like, this site etc. It doesn't seem sustainable does it?

ternaryoperator 5y ago
How not? I think the desire to share expertise is inexhaustible in some people. God bless them for that!
Anthony-G 5y ago
It’s not all altruism. Answering interesting questions is a fabulous way of improving your own knowledge of a particular topic. It’s not until you start to explain something to someone else that you realise all the gaps in your own understanding. Many times, I would see a Stack Exchange and think “that’s a quick and/or easy question to answer” – only to discover there are more subtleties and possible edge cases to consider once you really start thinking about it. Before you know it you’ve spent over an hour trying to answer the question as comprehensively as possible. > Answering questions also can make you feel smart. Not so much. Though, when I read answers that I wrote years ago, I think my past self was a lot smarter than my present self. I’d also view Wikipedia and Stack Exchange with their GFDL and Creative Commons licenses as being the textual equivalents of the FOSS world. Both are projects that I’ve benefited a lot from so it’s nice to be able to give something back.
- teh_klev 5y ago
  > Though, when I read answers that I wrote years ago, I think my past self was a lot smarter than my present self. I was trawling back through my Stack Overflow answers which go all the way back to the closed beta. Some of them I looked at and thought "am I getting old or stupid, past me seems super decent at this stuff". I wondered if it was just me but it's a relief to know someone else has these feelings.

ternaryoperator 5y ago

How not? I think the desire to share expertise is inexhaustible in some people. God bless them for that!

Anthony-G 5y ago

It’s not all altruism. Answering interesting questions is a fabulous way of improving your own knowledge of a particular topic. It’s not until you start to explain something to someone else that you realise all the gaps in your own understanding. Many times, I would see a Stack Exchange and think “that’s a quick and/or easy question to answer” – only to discover there are more subtleties and possible edge cases to consider once you really start thinking about it. Before you know it you’ve spent over an hour trying to answer the question as comprehensively as possible. > Answering questions also can make you feel smart. Not so much. Though, when I read answers that I wrote years ago, I think my past self was a lot smarter than my present self. I’d also view Wikipedia and Stack Exchange with their GFDL and Creative Commons licenses as being the textual equivalents of the FOSS world. Both are projects that I’ve benefited a lot from so it’s nice to be able to give something back.

teh_klev 5y ago
> Though, when I read answers that I wrote years ago, I think my past self was a lot smarter than my present self. I was trawling back through my Stack Overflow answers which go all the way back to the closed beta. Some of them I looked at and thought "am I getting old or stupid, past me seems super decent at this stuff". I wondered if it was just me but it's a relief to know someone else has these feelings.