[billforsternz]

The implication that Stack Overflow was somehow the only way you'd ever find a solution to a gnarly problem (back in the day) seems weird to me. I mean before that (even during that) there was the alternative problem solving technique of, well, rolling up your sleeves getting stuck in and figuring out the problem yourself without asking anybody. By doing some reading. Or by reading source code. Or disassembling code when there was no source code. Or by using a debugger. Or a logic analyser. Or by doing experiments. Or some combination of some or all of these and other things that didn't involve being spoon fed.

[sanex]

The only time I got a question answered on stack overflow was when my coworker suggested I ask there so then he could go answer it himself for the points.

[omoikane]

Before StackOverflow, we copied stuff from physically printed material. My personal favorite is the Perl Cookbook, which is still on my bookshelf.

The thing with printed books is that you have to type in those snippets yourself, and the act of typing out code reinforces knowledge. I only used the cookbook for each new problem a few times, after which I have committed the relevant bits to memory.

The act of copy&pasting from Stack Overflow might have the same reinforcement effect, but perhaps not as much because it didn't cost as much effort. The act of having a bot generate code probably doesn't do much reinforcement at all, although perhaps these new developers will be better at asking questions or creating prompts.

[inetknght]

> the alternative problem solving technique of, well, rolling up your sleeves getting stuck in and figuring out the problem yourself without asking anybody.

Meanwhile, boss wants the fix now...

[CarolineRommer]

Well productivity is output per unit of labor no? And labor is measured in hours.

[have-a-break]

The problem is with managers pushing hard deadlines and expecting immediate responses.

That being said any large company I've worked at seems to have followed the mantra you are putting down.

[scarface_74]

Before StackOverflow there was ExpertSexChange.com and before that there was DejaNews and posting to comp.lang.*.