[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"sanity-Y_vqD6mNFUJ5jkbuU7GA8pv0ypWILgpM6skGZ07vbM4":3,"sanity-yJv-jm6-EDmbU4_FeHBtuQ2ZLYfd-BCe8Sy6-fCvFDA":537},{"data":4,"sourceMap":-1},{"latestPodcast":5,"latestReleases":14,"post":39,"recent":512},[6],{"_id":7,"publishedAt":8,"slug":9,"sponsored":12,"title":13},"4d0175f4-40a8-47eb-9bb3-a453b326aa7d","2026-07-03T07:40:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":11},"slug","the-good-the-bad-and-the-ai-apps",null,"The good, the bad, and the AI apps",[15,21,27,33],{"_id":16,"publishedAt":17,"slug":18,"title":20},"eb5b66eb-9410-4329-83bb-22bbff39402a","2026-04-28T13:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":19},"turn-scattered-knowledge-into-trusted-intelligence","Turning scattered knowledge into trusted intelligence: Stack Internal 2026.3",{"_id":22,"publishedAt":23,"slug":24,"title":26},"369c2401-b62e-4a37-8ff8-bf603023ecad","2026-03-02T15:03:00.988Z",{"_type":10,"current":25},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-march-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: March 2026",{"_id":28,"publishedAt":29,"slug":30,"title":32},"5e9053a4-07ea-447c-91ea-29e0b6228537","2026-02-02T15:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":31},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-february-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: February 2026",{"_id":34,"publishedAt":35,"slug":36,"title":38},"a1b538eb-a8a6-46d0-80a1-ac70ec9bb935","2026-01-05T10:00:00.000-05:00",{"_type":10,"current":37},"what-s-new-at-stack-overflow-january-2026","What’s new at Stack Overflow: January 2026",{"_createdAt":40,"_id":41,"_rev":42,"_type":43,"_updatedAt":44,"author":45,"body":59,"comments":484,"dateUrl":485,"excerpt":486,"image":487,"legacyBody":491,"product":12,"publishedAt":494,"slug":495,"sponsored":12,"tags":497,"title":511,"visible":484},"2023-05-25T09:36:57Z","wp-post-3301","dgl3SCUzppW3U2LvCoRyxY","blogPost","2023-07-13T14:54:18Z",[46],{"_createdAt":47,"_id":48,"_rev":49,"_type":50,"_updatedAt":51,"avatar":52,"employee":54,"name":55,"role":56,"slug":57},"2023-05-23T16:27:18Z","wp-author-114","07ZbrKPSUrjrV4wQ6fam8u","blogAuthor","2023-08-29T11:49:01Z",{"_type":53},"image","former","Jeff Atwood","Co-founder",{"current":58},"jeffatwood",[60,71,93,123,185,193,212,231,239,247,276,304,322,352,360,384,414,422,435],{"_key":61,"_type":62,"children":63,"markDefs":69,"style":70},"58fee29d390b","block",[64],{"_key":65,"_type":66,"marks":67,"text":68},"58fee29d390b0","span",[],"Joel and Jeff, with special guest Eric Sink of SourceGear, discuss source control present and future, why writing a compiler is an important rite of passage for programmers, and how budding software engineers should be educated.",[],"normal",{"_key":72,"_type":62,"children":73,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":89,"style":70},"8590753af73e",[74,78,83],{"_key":75,"_type":66,"marks":76,"text":77},"8590753af73e0",[],"I was convinced Eric was going to agree with me on whether or not software developers should know C. Unfortunately for me, ",{"_key":79,"_type":66,"marks":80,"text":82},"8590753af73e1",[81],"c13708eee1c5","he agrees with Joel",{"_key":84,"_type":66,"marks":85,"text":86},"8590753af73e2",[],". Doh!",1,"bullet",[90],{"_key":81,"_type":91,"href":92,"reference":12},"link","http:\u002F\u002Fwww.ericsink.com\u002Fentries\u002Fc_morse_code.html",{"_key":94,"_type":62,"children":95,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":118,"style":70},"7d665044631c",[96,100,105,109,114],{"_key":97,"_type":66,"marks":98,"text":99},"7d665044631c0",[],"Eric's ",{"_key":101,"_type":66,"marks":102,"text":104},"7d665044631c1",[103],"64d7dba0c693","Source Control HOWTO",{"_key":106,"_type":66,"marks":107,"text":108},"7d665044631c2",[]," should be required reading for every software developer. Eric literally wrote the book on this, and in fact this series is being converted into a book. Deservedly so; it's fantastic. The best person to explain source control is someone like Eric who literally wrote a source control system from scratch -- ",{"_key":110,"_type":66,"marks":111,"text":113},"7d665044631c3",[112],"33647c21b816","SourceGear Vault",{"_key":115,"_type":66,"marks":116,"text":117},"7d665044631c4",[],".",[119,121],{"_key":103,"_type":91,"href":120,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.ericsink.com\u002Fscm\u002Fsource_control.html",{"_key":112,"_type":91,"href":122,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.sourcegear.com\u002Fvault\u002F",{"_key":124,"_type":62,"children":125,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":174,"style":70},"c274ecf0b885",[126,130,135,139,144,147,152,156,161,165,170],{"_key":127,"_type":66,"marks":128,"text":129},"c274ecf0b8850",[],"An extended discussion of the evolution of source control systems, into distributed version control (DVCS) such as ",{"_key":131,"_type":66,"marks":132,"text":134},"c274ecf0b8851",[133],"34ab367048d0","Git",{"_key":136,"_type":66,"marks":137,"text":138},"c274ecf0b8852",[],", ",{"_key":140,"_type":66,"marks":141,"text":143},"c274ecf0b8853",[142],"6ef83bb49526","Mercurial",{"_key":145,"_type":66,"marks":146,"text":138},"c274ecf0b8854",[],{"_key":148,"_type":66,"marks":149,"text":151},"c274ecf0b8855",[150],"618fbbc0dfae","Darcs",{"_key":153,"_type":66,"marks":154,"text":155},"c274ecf0b8856",[],", and ",{"_key":157,"_type":66,"marks":158,"text":160},"c274ecf0b8857",[159],"b7dd89edb3d6","BitKeeper",{"_key":162,"_type":66,"marks":163,"text":164},"c274ecf0b8858",[],". Eric feels Linus Torvalds' ",{"_key":166,"_type":66,"marks":167,"text":169},"c274ecf0b8859",[168],"27371c4512cb","video \"evangelizing\" Git",{"_key":171,"_type":66,"marks":172,"text":173},"c274ecf0b88510",[]," does the opposite for many. He's also uneasy about branching and merging becoming easy, common operations, which is much of the promise of DVCS.",[175,177,179,181,183],{"_key":133,"_type":91,"href":176,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fgit-scm.com\u002F",{"_key":142,"_type":91,"href":178,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.selenic.com\u002Fmercurial\u002Fwiki\u002F",{"_key":150,"_type":91,"href":180,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fdarcs.net\u002F",{"_key":159,"_type":91,"href":182,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.bitkeeper.com\u002F",{"_key":168,"_type":91,"href":184,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=4XpnKHJAok8",{"_key":186,"_type":62,"children":187,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":192,"style":70},"676cf056d508",[188],{"_key":189,"_type":66,"marks":190,"text":191},"676cf056d5080",[],"Eric feels DVCS solves certain edge conditions very well, but those edge conditions should only be explored when you feel the need, not promoted as broad feature bullets to the average developer. \"The harder you try to explain DVCS, the worse it gets, so stop!\"",[],{"_key":194,"_type":62,"children":195,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":209,"style":70},"37a3e4efa14d",[196,200,205],{"_key":197,"_type":66,"marks":198,"text":199},"37a3e4efa14d0",[],"Eric points to Eric Raymond's evolving ",{"_key":201,"_type":66,"marks":202,"text":204},"37a3e4efa14d1",[203],"ca645f7510f8","Understanding Version-Control Systems",{"_key":206,"_type":66,"marks":207,"text":208},"37a3e4efa14d2",[]," as a pretty good survey of today's source control landscape.",[210],{"_key":203,"_type":91,"href":211,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.catb.org\u002Fesr\u002Fwritings\u002Fversion-control\u002Fversion-control.html",{"_key":213,"_type":62,"children":214,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":228,"style":70},"4923bd3ce97c",[215,219,224],{"_key":216,"_type":66,"marks":217,"text":218},"4923bd3ce97c0",[],"Often, features aren't the point -- discoverability is. I was amused to find that ",{"_key":220,"_type":66,"marks":221,"text":223},"4923bd3ce97c1",[222],"f06fb19f2176","Eric discovered how convenient background compilation is in Eclipse",{"_key":225,"_type":66,"marks":226,"text":227},"4923bd3ce97c2",[],". This is something that Visual Basic developers have had for 8 years! Java and C# developers don't appreciate what they're missing because it hasn't been surfaced in the product, until now.",[229],{"_key":222,"_type":91,"href":230,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.ericsink.com\u002Fentries\u002Fjava_eclipse_3.html",{"_key":232,"_type":62,"children":233,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":238,"style":70},"bd69bfb8b1c9",[234],{"_key":235,"_type":66,"marks":236,"text":237},"bd69bfb8b1c90",[],"Eric and Joel note that, at some level, source control is about putting obstacles (let's call them safety barriers) in front of developers -- and the question is, how many does your shop need? Do you remember working without version control at all? It's incredibly fast, until stuff gets overwritten or lost, of course.",[],{"_key":240,"_type":62,"children":241,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":246,"style":70},"b0cf8bc132fa",[242],{"_key":243,"_type":66,"marks":244,"text":245},"b0cf8bc132fa0",[],"Joel and Eric maintain that writing a compiler is an important rite of passage for a programmer. There's an enormous class of programming problems where writing a lexer, parser, recursive descent, and parse trees will help you. Once you understand how easy it is to set up a state machine, you'll never try to use a regular expression inappropriately ever again.",[],{"_key":248,"_type":62,"children":249,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":271,"style":70},"992ec29e6915",[250,254,259,263,268],{"_key":251,"_type":66,"marks":252,"text":253},"992ec29e69150",[],"Eric also ",{"_key":255,"_type":66,"marks":256,"text":258},"992ec29e69151",[257],"c84a40f746c5","wrote a web browser",{"_key":260,"_type":66,"marks":261,"text":262},"992ec29e69152",[],". It's interesting to contrast the experience of writing a compiler, which is typically extremely strict and will fail to compile if a single character is out of place, versus writing a web browser, which accepts all kinds of malformed and downright incorrect HTML and JavaScript. Eric and Joel think this was categorically a huge mistake; I'm ",{"_key":264,"_type":66,"marks":265,"text":267},"992ec29e69153",[266],"30905d4ded2b","not so sure",{"_key":269,"_type":66,"marks":270,"text":117},"992ec29e69154",[],[272,274],{"_key":257,"_type":91,"href":273,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.ericsink.com\u002FBrowser_Wars.html",{"_key":266,"_type":91,"href":275,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.codinghorror.com\u002Fblog\u002Farchives\u002F000848.html",{"_key":277,"_type":62,"children":278,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":301,"style":70},"95ed7c712ce0",[279,283,288,292,297],{"_key":280,"_type":66,"marks":281,"text":282},"95ed7c712ce00",[],"On ",{"_key":284,"_type":66,"marks":285,"text":287},"95ed7c712ce01",[286],"02aa283a9263","Postel's robustness principle",{"_key":289,"_type":66,"marks":290,"text":291},"95ed7c712ce02",[],": \"be conservative in what you send, liberal in what you accept.\" This becomes a painful war of attrition at some level; everybody is vying to accept ",{"_key":293,"_type":66,"marks":294,"text":296},"95ed7c712ce03",[295],"em","just a little bit",{"_key":298,"_type":66,"marks":299,"text":300},"95ed7c712ce04",[]," liberally than the next guy, so isn't there an implied element of mutually assured destruction at the end?",[302],{"_key":286,"_type":91,"href":303,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FPostel%27s_law",{"_key":305,"_type":62,"children":306,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":319,"style":70},"4608fa485e09",[307,311,316],{"_key":308,"_type":66,"marks":309,"text":310},"4608fa485e090",[],"Eric: \"Computer Science degrees do not teach programming; they teach how to learn\". And he's OK with that. We all agree that it's hugely important to complement your computer science curriculum with either hobby projects, internships in the so-called \"real world\" -- or both! These extracurriculars will improve your chances of landing that first ",{"_key":312,"_type":66,"marks":313,"text":315},"4608fa485e091",[314],"476436587f76","junior developer job",{"_key":317,"_type":66,"marks":318,"text":117},"4608fa485e092",[],[320],{"_key":314,"_type":91,"href":321,"reference":12},"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fjobs\u002Fjunior-developer-jobs?utm_source=so-owned&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=dev-c4al&utm_content=c4al-link",{"_key":323,"_type":62,"children":324,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":347,"style":70},"c3d41beecde9",[325,329,334,338,343],{"_key":326,"_type":66,"marks":327,"text":328},"c3d41beecde90",[],"Congratulations to our ",{"_key":330,"_type":66,"marks":331,"text":333},"c3d41beecde91",[332],"82128475736b","new UserVoice community moderators",{"_key":335,"_type":66,"marks":336,"text":337},"c3d41beecde92",[]," -- Joel Coehoorn and Sean Massa. Do participate on the ",{"_key":339,"_type":66,"marks":340,"text":342},"c3d41beecde93",[341],"8ca815be5397","Stack Overflow UserVoice feedback site",{"_key":344,"_type":66,"marks":345,"text":346},"c3d41beecde94",[],", we check it every day, and we read all the feedback we get!",[348,350],{"_key":332,"_type":91,"href":349,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fblog.stackoverflow.com\u002F2008\u002F12\u002Fnew-uservoice-moderator\u002F",{"_key":341,"_type":91,"href":351,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.uservoice.com\u002F",{"_key":353,"_type":62,"children":354,"markDefs":359,"style":70},"b25342a53e1a",[355],{"_key":356,"_type":66,"marks":357,"text":358},"b25342a53e1a0",[],"Our favorite Stack Overflow questions this week are:",[],{"_key":361,"_type":62,"children":362,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":381,"style":70},"d5c73e321805",[363,368,372,377],{"_key":364,"_type":66,"marks":365,"text":367},"d5c73e3218050",[366],"strong","Eric",{"_key":369,"_type":66,"marks":370,"text":371},"d5c73e3218051",[],": ",{"_key":373,"_type":66,"marks":374,"text":376},"d5c73e3218052",[375],"ee1b3423e2c5","What is the single most effective thing you did to improve your programming skills?",{"_key":378,"_type":66,"marks":379,"text":380},"d5c73e3218053",[]," Eric says it was when he wrote a compiler. \"You'll write the crappiest compiler ever, but you will learn so much.\"",[382],{"_key":375,"_type":91,"href":383,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fquestions\u002F76364\u002Fwhat-is-the-single-most-effective-thing-you-did-to-improve-your-programming-skill",{"_key":385,"_type":62,"children":386,"level":87,"listItem":88,"markDefs":411,"style":70},"88e3d5da9e61",[387,391,394,399,403,407],{"_key":388,"_type":66,"marks":389,"text":390},"88e3d5da9e610",[366],"Jeff",{"_key":392,"_type":66,"marks":393,"text":371},"88e3d5da9e611",[],{"_key":395,"_type":66,"marks":396,"text":398},"88e3d5da9e612",[397],"22ed77b3217f","What's your most controversial programming opinion",{"_key":400,"_type":66,"marks":401,"text":402},"88e3d5da9e613",[],"? This question is almost a textbook example of what we ",{"_key":404,"_type":66,"marks":405,"text":406},"88e3d5da9e614",[295],"don't",{"_key":408,"_type":66,"marks":409,"text":410},"88e3d5da9e615",[]," want on Stack Overflow, in that it's an unanswerable and probably contentious discussion. And yet it's an extraordinarily high quality question! This is a testament to the quality of the participants, another example of the Stack Overflow community defining what they want to see and setting a positive example for other programmers to follow.",[412],{"_key":397,"_type":91,"href":413,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fquestions\u002F406760\u002Fwhats-your-most-controversial-programming-opinion",{"_key":415,"_type":62,"children":416,"markDefs":421,"style":70},"ad40dd2c14b1",[417],{"_key":418,"_type":66,"marks":419,"text":420},"ad40dd2c14b10",[],"We answered one listener question on this podcast:",[],{"_key":423,"_type":62,"children":424,"level":87,"listItem":433,"markDefs":434,"style":70},"3abdf18f4d98",[425,429],{"_key":426,"_type":66,"marks":427,"text":428},"3abdf18f4d980",[366],"Espen Grindhaug",{"_key":430,"_type":66,"marks":431,"text":432},"3abdf18f4d981",[],": \"In many universities and colleges, they don't teach the 'new' technologies. Can you list some books to get up to speed on the new technologies?\"","number",[],{"_key":436,"_type":62,"children":437,"markDefs":477,"style":70},"4c3ac159704a",[438,442,447,451,456,460,464,468,473],{"_key":439,"_type":66,"marks":440,"text":441},"4c3ac159704a0",[],"If you'd like to submit a question to be answered in our next episode, record an audio file (90 seconds or less) and mail it to ",{"_key":443,"_type":66,"marks":444,"text":446},"4c3ac159704a1",[445],"2cf42ef80b06","podcast@stackoverflow.com",{"_key":448,"_type":66,"marks":449,"text":450},"4c3ac159704a2",[],". You can ",{"_key":452,"_type":66,"marks":453,"text":455},"4c3ac159704a3",[454],"4e99b426a0bc","record a question",{"_key":457,"_type":66,"marks":458,"text":459},"4c3ac159704a4",[]," using nothing but a telephone and a web browser. We also have a dedicated phone number you can call to leave audio questions at ",{"_key":461,"_type":66,"marks":462,"text":463},"4c3ac159704a5",[366],"646-826-3879",{"_key":465,"_type":66,"marks":466,"text":467},"4c3ac159704a6",[],". The ",{"_key":469,"_type":66,"marks":470,"text":472},"4c3ac159704a7",[471],"618d4f2def66","transcript wiki",{"_key":474,"_type":66,"marks":475,"text":476},"4c3ac159704a8",[]," for this episode is available for public editing.",[478,480,482],{"_key":445,"_type":91,"href":479,"reference":12},"mailto:podcast@stackoverflow.com",{"_key":454,"_type":91,"href":481,"reference":12},"http:\u002F\u002Fblog.stackoverflow.com\u002Findex.php\u002F2008\u002F05\u002Frecording-podcast-questions-using-your-telephone\u002F",{"_key":471,"_type":91,"href":483,"reference":12},"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.fogbugz.com\u002Fdefault.asp?pg=pgWiki&command=view&ixWikiPage=29018",true,"2009\u002F01\u002F08","",{"_type":53,"asset":488},{"_ref":489,"_type":490},"image-2e7e2d828ffbb0404d422ecab697f29109a4339b-1500x1000-jpg","reference",{"code":492,"language":493},"Joel and Jeff, with special guest Eric Sink of SourceGear, discuss source control present and future, why writing a compiler is an important rite of passage for programmers, and how budding software engineers should be educated.\n\n\u003Cul>\n    \u003Cli>I was convinced Eric was going to agree with me on whether or not software developers should know C. Unfortunately for me, \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.ericsink.com\u002Fentries\u002Fc_morse_code.html\">he agrees with Joel\u003C\u002Fa>. Doh!\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Eric's \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.ericsink.com\u002Fscm\u002Fsource_control.html\">Source Control HOWTO\u003C\u002Fa> should be required reading for every software developer. Eric literally wrote the book on this, and in fact this series is being converted into a book. Deservedly so; it's fantastic. The best person to explain source control is someone like Eric who literally wrote a source control system from scratch -- \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.sourcegear.com\u002Fvault\u002F\">SourceGear Vault\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>An extended discussion of the evolution of source control systems, into distributed version control (DVCS) such as \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fgit-scm.com\u002F\">Git\u003C\u002Fa>, \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.selenic.com\u002Fmercurial\u002Fwiki\u002F\">Mercurial\u003C\u002Fa>, \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fdarcs.net\u002F\">Darcs\u003C\u002Fa>, and \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.bitkeeper.com\u002F\">BitKeeper\u003C\u002Fa>. Eric feels Linus Torvalds' \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=4XpnKHJAok8\">video \"evangelizing\" Git\u003C\u002Fa> does the opposite for many. He's also uneasy about branching and merging becoming easy, common operations, which is much of the promise of DVCS.\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Eric feels DVCS solves certain edge conditions very well, but those edge conditions should only be explored when you feel the need, not promoted as broad feature bullets to the average developer. \"The harder you try to explain DVCS, the worse it gets, so stop!\"\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Eric points to Eric Raymond's evolving \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.catb.org\u002Fesr\u002Fwritings\u002Fversion-control\u002Fversion-control.html\">Understanding Version-Control Systems\u003C\u002Fa> as a pretty good survey of today's source control landscape.\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Often, features aren't the point -- discoverability is. I was amused to find that \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.ericsink.com\u002Fentries\u002Fjava_eclipse_3.html\">Eric discovered how convenient background compilation is in Eclipse\u003C\u002Fa>. This is something that Visual Basic developers have had for 8 years! Java and C# developers don't appreciate what they're missing because it hasn't been surfaced in the product, until now.\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Eric and Joel note that, at some level, source control is about putting obstacles (let's call them safety barriers) in front of developers -- and the question is, how many does your shop need? Do you remember working without version control at all? It's incredibly fast, until stuff gets overwritten or lost, of course.\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Joel and Eric maintain that writing a compiler is an important rite of passage for a programmer. There's an enormous class of programming problems where writing a lexer, parser, recursive descent, and parse trees will help you. Once you understand how easy it is to set up a state machine, you'll never try to use a regular expression inappropriately ever again.\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Eric also \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.ericsink.com\u002FBrowser_Wars.html\">wrote a web browser\u003C\u002Fa>. It's interesting to contrast the experience of writing a compiler, which is typically extremely strict and will fail to compile if a single character is out of place, versus writing a web browser, which accepts all kinds of malformed and downright incorrect HTML and JavaScript. Eric and Joel think this was categorically a huge mistake; I'm \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fwww.codinghorror.com\u002Fblog\u002Farchives\u002F000848.html\">not so sure\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>On \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FPostel%27s_law\">Postel's robustness principle\u003C\u002Fa>: \"be conservative in what you send, liberal in what you accept.\" This becomes a painful war of attrition at some level; everybody is vying to accept \u003Cem>just a little bit\u003C\u002Fem> liberally than the next guy, so isn't there an implied element of mutually assured destruction at the end?\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Eric: \"Computer Science degrees do not teach programming; they teach how to learn\". And he's OK with that. We all agree that it's hugely important to complement your computer science curriculum with either hobby projects, internships in the so-called \"real world\" -- or both! These extracurriculars will improve your chances of landing that first \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fjobs\u002Fjunior-developer-jobs?utm_source=so-owned&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=dev-c4al&utm_content=c4al-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">junior developer job\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>Congratulations to our \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fblog.stackoverflow.com\u002F2008\u002F12\u002Fnew-uservoice-moderator\u002F\">new UserVoice community moderators\u003C\u002Fa> -- Joel Coehoorn and Sean Massa. Do participate on the \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.uservoice.com\u002F\">Stack Overflow UserVoice feedback site\u003C\u002Fa>, we check it every day, and we read all the feedback we get!\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\nOur favorite Stack Overflow questions this week are:\n\n\u003Cul>\n    \u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Eric\u003C\u002Fstrong>: \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fquestions\u002F76364\u002Fwhat-is-the-single-most-effective-thing-you-did-to-improve-your-programming-skill\">What is the single most effective thing you did to improve your programming skills?\u003C\u002Fa> Eric says it was when he wrote a compiler. \"You'll write the crappiest compiler ever, but you will learn so much.\"\u003C\u002Fli>\n    \u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Jeff\u003C\u002Fstrong>: \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.com\u002Fquestions\u002F406760\u002Fwhats-your-most-controversial-programming-opinion\">What's your most controversial programming opinion\u003C\u002Fa>? This question is almost a textbook example of what we \u003Cem>don't\u003C\u002Fem> want on Stack Overflow, in that it's an unanswerable and probably contentious discussion. And yet it's an extraordinarily high quality question! This is a testament to the quality of the participants, another example of the Stack Overflow community defining what they want to see and setting a positive example for other programmers to follow.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\nWe answered one listener question on this podcast:\n\n\u003Col>\n    \u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Espen Grindhaug\u003C\u002Fstrong>: \"In many universities and colleges, they don't teach the 'new' technologies. Can you list some books to get up to speed on the new technologies?\"\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\nIf you'd like to submit a question to be answered in our next episode, record an audio file (90 seconds or less) and mail it to \u003Ca href=\"mailto:podcast@stackoverflow.com\">podcast@stackoverflow.com\u003C\u002Fa>. You can \u003Ca href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fblog.stackoverflow.com\u002Findex.php\u002F2008\u002F05\u002Frecording-podcast-questions-using-your-telephone\u002F\">record a question\u003C\u002Fa> using nothing but a telephone and a web browser. We also have a dedicated phone number you can call to leave audio questions at \u003Cstrong>646-826-3879\u003C\u002Fstrong>.\n\nThe \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fstackoverflow.fogbugz.com\u002Fdefault.asp?pg=pgWiki&command=view&ixWikiPage=29018\">transcript wiki\u003C\u002Fa> for this episode is available for public editing.","html","2009-01-08T12:00:00.000Z",{"current":496},"podcast-36",[498,506],{"_createdAt":499,"_id":500,"_rev":501,"_type":502,"_updatedAt":499,"slug":503,"title":505},"2023-05-23T16:43:21Z","wp-tagcat-company","9HpbCsT2tq0xwozQfkc4ih","blogTag",{"current":504},"company","Company",{"_createdAt":499,"_id":507,"_rev":501,"_type":502,"_updatedAt":499,"slug":508,"title":510},"wp-tagcat-podcast",{"current":509},"podcast","The Stack Overflow Podcast","Podcast #36",[513,519,525,531],{"_id":514,"publishedAt":515,"slug":516,"sponsored":12,"title":518},"28e560af-f0aa-4d46-bd90-f435ad604aa7","2026-06-26T14:00:27.102Z",{"_type":10,"current":517},"paging-charity-how-can-engineering-leaders-avoid-becoming-bond-villains","Paging Charity! How can engineering leaders avoid becoming Bond villains?",{"_id":520,"publishedAt":521,"slug":522,"sponsored":12,"title":524},"4b22c2a3-3779-4966-93eb-5230391dbdce","2026-06-23T14:08:58.595Z",{"_type":10,"current":523},"your-ai-shipped-a-backend-that-boots-that-is-the-whole-problem","Your AI shipped a backend that boots. That is the whole problem.",{"_id":526,"publishedAt":527,"slug":528,"sponsored":12,"title":530},"5cf362e1-fe7b-45af-b69c-914731c6a052","2026-06-23T14:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":529},"the-2026-developer-survey-is-now-open-for-human-developers-only","The 2026 Developer Survey is now open (for human developers only)!",{"_id":532,"publishedAt":533,"slug":534,"sponsored":12,"title":536},"30b995f7-7cb9-4dd8-bf71-d0685940a32b","2026-06-19T14:00:00.000Z",{"_type":10,"current":535},"dispatches-from-o-reilly-from-capabilities-to-responsibilities","Dispatches from O'Reilly: From capabilities to responsibilities",{"data":538,"sourceMap":-1},{"count":539,"lastTimestamp":12},0]