[matthewarkin]

I've learned quite a bit from IRC (mostly in #stripe). Though the learning has been way more indirect since I spend most of my time helping others. So people would ask "how do I do X?" and the learning comes from researching ways to do that and evaluating the pros and cons of each. The second way that I've just learned is by getting exposure to how a ton of people have integrated certain aspects.

Stack overflow is great for solving individual bugs (which definitely works in some IRC rooms), while IRC is more of a "how to do something" or "why should I do it this way" type of environment