[fmatthew5876]

I'm not sure why this is even a question, nobody can learn a subject only from a Q&A tool. You learn programming by reading a comprehensive tutorial(s) or book(s) for the foundations. Then you practice on real problems and research the advanced tools and APIs as needed. If you've got more experienced human mentors you go to them for help. You follow blogs / news articles and watch tech conferences. You get enough experience and solve enough hard problems until you know your tools and how to use them effectively.

Google (of which Stack Overflow is only one of many results) is for when you get stuck on some specific problem and need help. Nowadays we just see Stack Overflow in the search results more often than not. I guess SO means nowadays its easier to find answers to specific questions but I don't see how you could actually learn programming from the bottom up that way. It also encourages blind copy and paste solutions without actually understanding the mechanics of the underlying technical problem.

Stack Overflow is very useful, but you need to take it into context like anything else. Many stack overflow answers are still poor quality, outdated, lacking some context, or just outright wrong. Just because its on the internet and a lot of people have looked at it doesn't mean the right person who really knows the subject matter has not only read the answers but cared enough and had enough free time to produce a good detailed answer.