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Issue 283: Knowledge for lurkers

This week, we're thinking about the changes taking place within venerable institutions. We talked with the Chair of the OpenJDK Governing Board, Georges Saab, about what the past five years have meant to a 30-year-old language. The biggie: new releases every six months with whatever's done instead of waiting to shove a massive feature-fest out every few years. Over on the Leaders of Code podcast, our CTO talks with Cloudflare's CTO about how the internet—and their jobs making it a better place—are about to get a little cray-cray in the next few years. XX

We're also thinking about how to keep making things better, now and in the future. We've got a round table podcast with Stack Overflow's Trust and Safety team about how they put out dumpster fires that are inevitable in any user community. For those of you in the Zoomer generation (or trying to deal with them spotting bad vibes), we've a fantastic look at how this generation learns differently and how AI fits there. XX

Fret not, pretty babies, we have a fat stack of fun facts for you to trot out at the next "Kid from Jerry McGuire look-alike contest." Did you know giant snails could have sieged medieval castles? But did you know Marvin Minsky created a framework for thinking about AI agents in 1986? But, but did you know you can spot a bad workplace pretty fast? Bonus: Yes, Mr. Goodwillie, we have your 1987 letter!

From the blog

Defending the realm: Trust and safety at Stack Overflow

In this special episode, Ryan is joined by our Senior VP of Communities, Philippe Beaudette, and the Trust and Safety team at Stack Overflow to discuss maintaining platform integrity and managing user safety, handling complex issues like harassment, and how their team balances transparency and privacy online.

"My job is going to change in a dramatic way”: Exploring the future of the internet with Cloudflare

In this episode of Leaders of Code, Jody Bailey, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Stack Overflow, sits down with Dane Knecht, the newly appointed Chief Technology Officer at Cloudflare.

Learn like a lurker: Gen Z’s digital-first lifestyle and the future of knowledge

As a generation characterized as "digital natives," the way Gen Z interacts with and consumes knowledge is rooted in their desire for instant gratification and personalization. How will this affect the future of knowledge management and the technologies of tomorrow?

Smarter teams, brighter insights: Stack Overflow for Teams Business summer bundle

Read on to see the latest features coming to Stack Overflow for Teams Business users!

After 30 years, Java is still brewing up new features

It’s Java’s 30th anniversary! Ryan welcomes back Georges Saab,  Senior VP of Development for the Java Platform Group and Chair of the OpenJDK Governing Board, to reflect on Java’s changes over the last five years.

Interesting questions

Is being "context-free" an objective property of a programming language's grammar?

"The grammar is a mathematical construct, not some implementation detail."

How should I deal with a team member who rejects "good" programming practices?

C++ is more than just overly complicated C.

Do you have a copy of my 1987 letter to Waldhausen?

Actually, Tom, yes. Yes, we do.

Why would giant snails remain a constant problem for Medieval Europe?

Based on a doodle from an illuminated manuscript.

Links from around the web

Lessons from nine more years of tricky bugs

It's amazing how many of these bugs are in the "Oops!" category.

Revisiting Minsky’s Society of Mind in 2025

A 1986 book from an AI pioneer describes where AI is headed pretty well.

The drawbridges go up

Interoperability sounds nice and all, but everybody would rather keep their moats.

On how long it takes to know if a job is right for you or not

Those gut feelings might be the best judge of job fit.

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