[laumars]

That’s a very uncharitable view. My view point was a lot more around whether the extra information provided in SO (and others) helps an engineer to make better informed decisions about code quality and how many engineers will simply take the top answer verbatim without testing (either online or via Co Pilot).

The reason I singled out juniors has nothing to do with them being the least likely to check documentation. In fact seniors are just as bad in that regard. Plus a lot of the time the reason an engineer goes to SO is a particular common problem doesn’t have a pre-built solution in a languages standard library. The reason I suggested juniors is just because that’s who the researchers said they mostly work with.

So let’s be clear about one thing: I know plenty of junior developers who have put plenty of seniors to shame. I’m not about to suggest that juniors are worse developers; maybe less experienced in the chronological sense but you need to be damn careful before making other generalisations.

[sdevonoes]

> So let’s be clear about one thing: I know plenty of junior developers who have put plenty of seniors to shame.

Agree. My comment was more about: most of the engineers out there (and yes, I do include myself) tend to rely and trust on information that is easily accessible; no matter if they juniors or seniors. I think this also applies to everyday life in general as well (e.g., we tend to read the newspapers to get "informed", but we rarely go to the source of truth to check our "facts").