
Python at StackOverflow [audio] - mikeckennedy
https://talkpython.fm/episodes/show/86/python-at-stackoverflow
======
nathancahill
What a great guy. I know immediately when I see with his name on a
Stackoverflow answer that it's authoritative and can be trusted (which is a
lot for Stackoverflow, especially when you've exhausted the manual and the
source code).

~~~
bbcbasic
Jon Skeet is another great guy for this

~~~
pavanred
I used to do .Net programming a few years back and I used to love Jon Skeet's
answers for any .Net question on SO. Precise, informative and simple
explanations.

It's been a few years since, but if I remember correctly, it was an interview
of Jon Skeet on an episode of Scott Hanselman's podcast where he spoke about
reading the C# spec, and as a young beginner in programming I loved that
advice because when I did read the spec, I was pleasantly surprised, perhaps
naive, that all the information I needed to learn the language was right
there, available for free when I thought I had to purchase books etc. to learn
more. :)

~~~
metaphor
> when I did read the spec, I was pleasantly surprised, perhaps naive, that
> all the information I needed to learn the language was right there

This...I couldn't place enough emphasis on it.

If I could attribute a single factor which has had the most impact in
differentiating my performance vs. peers who were hired around the same time,
it'd be a philosophy of setting aside time to study specs in detail and
keeping up with them.

------
sameera_sy
If there's a python question, he doesn't fail to reply within 5 minutes.

~~~
twelve40
I'm genuinely curious how that works. I know once you get up to a certain
level you can thrive just by crafting high-quality answers to random peoples'
questions. But still. For me, even if I don't work on some routine production
stuff and simply try to learn things, it takes quite a bit of uninterrupted
time to master a certain topic. And with our field being what it is, there are
more and more topics getting rolled out every day no matter what stack you
use. So how is it possible for one person to run essentially a one-man
commercial-grade support operation for a complicated ever-changing technology?

~~~
nathancahill
Reply with a correct one sentence answer within 15 seconds, then continuously
improve it until it's a 2 paragraph answer citing source code and
documentation, with code examples to boot. Stackoverflow is incredibly easy to
"game" if you have the time.

~~~
holdenweb
None of which removes the fact that Martijn is incredibly helpful to Python
questioners.

