If we do not stop to help each other, what do we become?
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
A deployed Air Force member credits Stack Overflow strangers with giving him the human connection he needed, not just answers.
Jeff Atwood publishes an email from a reader who, while deployed during the 2013 Zamboanga Siege, relied on Stack Overflow strangers for help when friends and family told him to "do it yourself." The reader contrasts LLMs' efficient answers with the human care he felt from volunteers. Atwood asks: if we do not stop to help each other, what do we become?
What commenters are saying
Commenters split sharply. Some romanticize early Stack Overflow's helpful culture, others recall its gamified reputation for snide replies and castigation. A few note that LLMs now fill the gap but lack genuine care. One argues that AI training has commoditized donated labor, drying up public knowledge sources. Others worry that pre-AI knowledge will become stale without new public contributions.