Stack Overflow Blog

code-for-a-living November 23, 2020

The macro problem with microservices

In just 20 years, software engineering has shifted from architecting monoliths with a single database and centralized state to microservices where everything is distributed across multiple containers, servers, data centers, and even continents. Distributing things solves scaling concerns, but introduces a whole new world of problems, many of which were previously solved by monoliths.

Ryland Goldstein Head of Product at Temporal

the-loop November 19, 2020

The Loop: Adding review guidance to the help center

While working on the review queues project, the Public Platform team saw an opportunity to improve the help center and create a space for more canonical articles about reviewing. By adding new, specific review queue help pages, the help center could become a more accessible and useful resource to all of our users.

Lisa Park Product Designer

code-for-a-living November 17, 2020

The complexities—and rewards—of open sourcing corporate software products

Two engineers at Salesforce talk about how they decoupled a complex library from old spaghetti logic, then open sourced that library by creating a new internal process where none existed before.

Demian Brecht and Drew Shafer

code-for-a-living November 9, 2020

Modern IDEs are magic. Why are so many coders still using Vim and Emacs?

The endless war between Vim and Emacs users has continued ad nauseam over the years. It's less a war at this point than a grumbling shuffle of ingrained habit and stubborn resistance to change.

John Biggs and Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living November 5, 2020

How to lead with clarity and empathy in the remote world

2020 has brought changes and challenges for everyone—including those in leadership roles. Management style and decision-making have taken on new significance during these testing times as staff’s quality of life—as well as company growth—hang in the balance. In this newly remote world, it can be difficult to figure out the best ways to support and…

Medi Madelen Gwosdz and Ben Popper

code-for-a-living November 2, 2020

What’s so great about Go?

We explore the traits that have led to the rising popularity of the Go programming language.

John Biggs and Ben Popper

community October 28, 2020

Communities and Connections will power our growth in 2021

Our CEO looks back on his first 12 months at Stack Overflow and shares his thoughts on what we're planning for the future.

Prashanth Chandrasekar CEO

careers October 27, 2020

Making the most of your one-on-one with your manager or other leadership

As many offices go fully remote, learning how to approach key meetings with your manager can pay big dividends.

Teresa Dietrich

servers falling over like dominoes but getting an alert

code-for-a-living October 23, 2020

Failing over without falling over

You’ve gone through the motions and play-acted a disaster recovery scenario, but despite spending a lot on the production, it’s not real. What you have is a fairy tale: “Once upon a time, in theory, if everything works perfectly, we have a plan to survive the disasters we thought of in advance.” In practice, it’s more likely to be a nightmare.

Adrian Cockcroft

the-loop October 21, 2020

The Loop: Our Community Roadmap for Q4 2020

We review our ticket smash event, lay out our roadmap for Q4, and talk about what we've been learning from our moderators.

Sara Chipps Director of Product, Community

code-for-a-living October 19, 2020

How to communicate more deliberately and efficiently when working remotely

When you already know your co-workers and how they approach work, that is fine as they probably haven’t changed all that much since the start of the pandemic. You cannot safely transfer those assumptions to new team members, however, as people remain people, rather than the microservices that they may seem over the internet.

Matthew Gaiser Director of Content