TL;DR

By now, everyone has probably seen this (or a similar version) graph:

So, let’s not dwell on it, shall we? It was nice (great even), when it lasted.

Nowadays, it’s better to work on your Github profile or actually building/publishing.

That’s it, going back to my terminal to see if Clawdbot/Moltbot/OpenBot needs my attention, ciao 👋

Yes, our (programming) world is changing, and I hope you’re keeping up…

!TL;DR

Back in 2018, my friend Shawn Milochik and I discussed on our DevThink podcast if it’s still worth it to build a portfolio on StackOverflow. It was our 1st episode.

Then, I thought that building the profile there was still valuable, especially if you wanted to change jobs, but I also agreed that having an active Github account is also important (maybe even more so) as you can show people what you can do with the code, and ‘code does not lie’.

Moreso, if you didn’t care about the vanity points you may want to do it because of your own satisfaction of helping people.

Because it took a lot of effort to actually get to a certain number of reputation points on StackOverflow, I would argue that one developed a decent set of skills (writing, explaining, thinking).

So, IMHO, it was totally worth it. And wonder if a similar network will ever arise in our agent-first world.

Here’s the recording, and below is the transcript in case anyone is interested.

Fun thought: folks listening this in 10y from now may be like: lol, they still actually wrote code back then 🙂.

Nikola

This is a question I get asked a lot, mainly because I have a profile with more than 15k rep:

Shawn

I have a profile on StackOverflow, and created it just because I wanted to post a question or upvote someone’s answer one time or another, but I have a pretty low ranking and I’ve never sought out higher one.

I have no idea why anyone would want to cultivate a high ranking unless it was for the purpose of getting a job. But then again, it doesn’t seem to compare to your Github profile.

Nikola

I created mine in 2010, and I was only asking questions for a very very long time. However, it turned out that those questions were very good because I got a lot of upvotes on them. The first time I started answering questions was when I had to create a mobile version of some site and I was using jQuery Mobile and found a lot of questions to which I knew the answer because I read some book about it, and had experience with it. At that time I had around 300 points, and after I started answering I quickly got to 2K.

Flash forward today, I am approaching the 10 K, and what I have to say about that is that my experience with it is very good, because I got admited to one freelance site without any interviews, just by providing my StackOverflow profile link.

I think it’s valuable if you want to change jobs, but I also agree that having an active Github account is also important (maybe even more so) as you can show people what you can do with the code, and ‘code does not lie’.

Shawn

I’ve hired and interviewed quite a bit since about 2010, and I don’t remember ever asking about or being presented with an applicant’s StackOverflow account but definitely have asked for or been presented with their Github account in the resume.

Nikola

The dean of our university used to joke that our graduates find a job in maximum three days depending on when the weekend falls. To extrapolate on that one, having a very good StackOverflow profile makes you very desirable. When you have a certain amount of reputation points (reps) you get recruiter emails (if you allow the option in StackOverflow settings).

I met people who don’t care about the points. Instead, they only do it because of their own satisfaction of helping people.

Shawn

When I was doing Django pretty heavily from 2009-2012, I was on the Django users mailing list every day. I’ve seen plenty people ask questions where it was obvious that they were lazy and they didn’t take the time to figure out how to ask the question so that they could be helped.

I had a habit of making sure I can explain the question pretty clearly, and trying to find the answer myself first. What happened was almost all the time I was able to answer my own questions and almost never ask a question.

I found that I was answering a lot of questions for a few years and there were multiple times that years later when one of the developers on my team would come to me and say:

"Hey I had this problem and I did a Google search and I found the answer, and you wrote it"

So, you can definitely contribute in a way that doesn’t acrew any points or reputation.

To touch on the Github mention, I would look at the actual code in the Github profile and not just the number of stars.

Nikola

Since I know that it takes a lot of effort to actually get to a certain number of reputation points on StackOverflow, I would argue that this person is very good because I myself know that it’s not an easy task to do.

Newbies complain too much

New members don’t seem to like StackOverflow (and there’s even a term SO police) because most of their questions go along the lines of: "help me connect to the database".

I don’t have respect for those kind of people because they didn’t read the rules, or the FAQ.

If you want me to help you, then at least put in some effort. Usual answers to these kind of questions are: ‘What have you tried?’. And then they wouldn’t have anything to show for it.

Usually those people go away, and honestly you don’t want to have them in the community. I may be too harsh, but if you want me to give you my time for free, then please show that you really took some effort and did some researching. If you’re a beginner there is probably 99% chance that there already is same/similar question because you’re not as advanced so you don’t have a specific question that you need a professional to answer you.

So, is it good of an investment to do that nowadays?

Maybe not in Java, maybe not in PHP, or any of those languages that have been with us for a long time. But, it may be a very good idea to do it with a certain new technology because that will help you to place yourself as a master in the field.

If people search for something in a certain technology or language and your name constantly keeps popping up, and if they have a company that’s searching for some specific answers and you already answered them for free on ten questions, if they really need some additional help they’ll certainly reach out to you.

Beware of the help vampires

Shawn

It’s definitely good to have reputation, but at the same time you want to avoid what we used to call a ‘help vampire’. That’s someone who after they ask a question, and you give them an answer will immediately come back with the next problem. They’re basically having you do their homework and keep wasting your time. The whole point of helping someone is you want to say:

Oh, you’re a smart person, you’re trying and you got stuck because you don’t know what you’re doing as you’re new to this. That’s totally reasonable, so let me help you get over this little hurdle, so you can see the other side and then you can have smooth sailing from there on.

Nikola

This can happen on StackOverflow as well, but when someone keeps asking the followup questions in the comments you just ask them to make a new question.

They rarely do that, either because of laziness or frustration. I think that these kind of people came to this industry for the wrong reasons because if you don’t see real true pure joy in finding out things for yourself then you won’t last long here. I remember when I was starting out, that I couldn’t figure out something for like a week and then, when I finally got it, it was the best feeling ever! It’s one of the things that gets me going in this field.

Shawn

I agree that it’s how it should be. There’s a very famous person on the internet called Eric S. Raymond (wrote the art of unix programming) who wrote this post called how to ask questions the smart way. I think there’s really good stuff there like:

• before you ask try to find an answer by searching the archives
• try to find an answer by doing a web search
• try to find an answer by reading the manual
• read the FAQ
• experiment with it yourself to try to figure it out

The questions like "how do I connect to a database in language X" very clearly show that they didn’t do any of those things

What we do is a craft, and not just something that anyone can do 9-5 and then go home and sit on the couch and watch TV and drink beer without it being a part of their life.

Nikola

If you clock in the 8 hours and you can’t wait to come home and do something else then honestly I would really question if this is something that you’re put on this Earth to do.

Shawn

I read this blog post about a kid from Nigeria who wanted to become a programmer but couldn’t afford a laptop, so he started with his Nokia phone and in the end ended in an MIT backed startup.

Then you contrast that with someone who has a computer, and an internet connection that works perfectly fine and a full keyboard and then they can’t even be bothered to figure out the first thing about what they’re trying to do!?

Talent is overrated

Nikola

I agree and am going to pull a parallel here with a book that I’m currently reading called How to teach your baby to read. I’m not going to go into the details of why and how, but the thing is that they were actually working with brain damaged children and what they were able to do with them is that they read on a level of a normal child. Now, if we all would be willing to work harder, I’m wondering how much more would we advance. We’re not using our potential and that’s sad.

Shawn

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, interviewed some violin teachers who said that if you compare someone with a lot of talent to someone who’s not as talented but is putting in more practice hours, they will be way better in five years. It doesn’t matter what you start with as much as how much you practice. Of course, practice is not just repetition, it’s also doing something while intentionally paying attention to what you’re doing and noticing the outcome and making adjustments and so on. That’s known as deliberate practice.

Nikola

We’ve derailed this podcast from StackOverflow, but I want to say that I have on my website three basic quotes that I love and one of them is:

hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard

Conclusion

Nikola

Definitely create a StackOverflow account. Before you ask any questions please read the FAQ, and please try to be as thorough as possible. Many times you will find out that by asking a question in the concise way you will actually find out the answer yourself. Pro tip: don’t try get points in a very established language, try to do it in some new language/areas/framework.

Shawn

Do it, as it can’t hurt. If you like to help people anyway, you might as well get a little credit for it. It can also be addictive, and a good way to pass the time. If you’re going to be online watching YouTube videos and clicking funny memes and things like that and wasting your time and not being productive, you might as well spend that time on StackOverflow helping others because it feels really good and on top of that if you’ve ever done it you learn so much by teaching and helping others.

Our profession is so huge and wide that even if you’re an expert in a language you use every day, you don’t use every single aspect of it based on the industry you work in, or you know other factors so sometimes someone asks a little question that’s seems easy and you’ll learn a little bit better about that you learn about the tools you use everyday so definitely go for it.

In this StackOverflow question I answered how to launch an Ionic web app

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%). In this category (stackoverflow) of posts, I will be posting my top rated questions and answers. This, btw, is allowed as explained in the meta thread here.

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework lately and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework. I’m currently #3 in the top All time answerers list.

I answered this question by user bharat batra:

I am building an ionic app for prototyping purposes. For the first version I want it to simply be a web based app. I know how to run the app locally on my computer – I simply type ionic serve and the app runs. However, to actually have remote clients, I am not sure how to run this app. DO I need to have the ionic server running at a port on my main server, and then have the clients all make requests to that port on the server IP address? How do I actually do this?

My answer was simple:

You just take everything from your www folder and place it on your web server. That’s all there is to it.

Say your web server address is bharat.com and say you placed the www folder in your web server root. In that case, your Ionic app will be visible at bharat.com/www

How to Launch an #Ionic Web App – Where Should Ionic Server be Running? https://t.co/A6iGuaOJ9w

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) May 3, 2016

In this StackOverflow question I answered when it is appropriate to use ion-pane in Ionic Framework

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%). In this category (stackoverflow) of posts, I will be posting my top rated questions and answers. This, btw, is allowed as explained in the meta thread here.

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework lately and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework. I’m currently #3 in the top All time answerers list.

I answered this question by user qizzacious:

This is a simple enough question.

After taking a look at the documentation for ion-pane it states:

A simple container that fits content, with no side effects. Adds the ‘pane’ class to the element.

What does it mean when it states “no side effects”? What are the use cases for ion-pane?

My answer was:

Honestly, I never used ion-pane before, but this question intrigued me so I went searching. As it seems, and you can see on this Codepen: http://codepen.io/anon/pen/JGwJKv?editors=1010, if the content is too big (if you try to resize the browser window to very small) it will not show it. Opposed to the ion-content which will add scroll bars and allow you to use ion-refresher and some other options (tapping into scroll delegate, etc.).

So, to be honest, I never stumbled upon a need for such a use-case, so would probably never use ion-pane. The lacking documentation about it, kind of suggests the same…

When is it appropriate to use ion-pane in Ionic Framework? https://t.co/3o9LVRoJxc

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) April 26, 2016

In this StackOverflow question I answered how to showcase your Ionic apps for a portfolio without publishing them to App Stores

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%). In this category (stackoverflow) of posts, I will be posting my top rated questions and answers. This, btw, is allowed as explained in the meta thread here.

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework lately and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework. I’m currently #3 in the top All time answerers list.

I answered this question by user Jubl:

I have a few Ionic apps that I made that I want to add to my portfolio site for potential employers to check out. However, I would like to upload them somewhere so that when a visitor clicks on my link, it will take them to a website showcasing my app. I don’t want to push my apps to the actual stores, but still make them publicly viewable. Is this possible to do with an Ionic application?

I understand that Ionic View exists, but I have to send out email permissions for people to try my app (from what I know). I’d rather my apps just be uploaded somewhere and be easily accessible through links.

My answer was:

Actually, with Ionic View you can just share its ID number (see the image below) and anyone with this number will be able to download your app (via Ionic View) without you having to send them the invitation.

Your second option, but maybe a bit harder to do is to host your application on your server. So, you would take all the content from the www folder and simply put it on your server in a certain folder and your app would then be accessible from the web as well. What I usually do is I create an iPhone image and create an iframe in which I then show the Ionic app. I won’t go into details here, there are similar questions that cover this particular topic already.

Anyways, hope this helps, and clearly for the least effort, the Ionic View seems like the best option.

#Showcasing #Ionic Apps For a Portfolio Without Publishing Them to App Stores https://t.co/3npCjin5rG

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) April 23, 2016

In this StackOverflow question I answered why it isn’t possible to read SMS in Ionic application which you want to deploy to Apple’s App Store

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%). In this category (stackoverflow) of posts, I will be posting my top rated questions and answers. This, btw, is allowed as explained in the meta thread here.

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework lately and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework. I’m currently #3 in the top All time answerers list.

I answered this question by user aintno12u:

Good day, do you have any idea how to achieve this in ionic? I found tutorials for PhoneGap but that was 3 years ago and i dont know if it will work with my ionic app. The ng-cordova has only thishttp://ngcordova.com/docs/plugins/sms/ to send sms but not receive. I saw this also but i have no idea how to use it. https://github.com/floatinghotpot/cordova-plugin-sms/tree/master/docs. Please help. Ionic so new that it lacks tutorials.

My answer was:

In case you’re trying to get this kind of application to the App Store, I have bad news for you.

As this answer states:

Simply two words from Apple: Not Possible

Cordova and Ionic #SMS Receiver https://t.co/jk58Gx4P0M

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) February 16, 2016

In this StackOverflow question I asked why doesn’t window.something throw an error

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%). In this category (stackoverflow) of posts, I will be posting my top rated questions and answers. This, btw, is allowed as explained in the meta thread here.

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework lately and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework. I’m currently #3 in the top All time answerers list.

I actually asked this question myself:

I’m using an AdMob plugin in my Ionic application, and one way, as you can see in the documentation, to test if the plugin is properly loaded is to do:

if(AdMob) {
    ///other config code...
}

Now, this works perfectly fine on a device. However, it doesn’t work in the browser; it throws an error in the console log: AdMob is not defined.

I have found a solution to test the existence of plugin like this (without throwing an error in the console):

if (window.AdMob){...}

And I have seen this usage on multiple questions here on StackOverflow. However, I wasn’t able to find an explanation to as why this doesn’t throw an error.

I have a vague reasoning to as why this would be so, but I would really appreciate it if someone experienced could explain it in more detail.

edit: I made additional tests like this:

var a = "hi";
console.log(a); //shows "hi"
console.log(b); //throws an error that b is not defined

var c = {};
c.b = "hi again";
console.log(c.b); //shows "hi again" as expected

//and now for the grand finale
console.log(c.something);//doesn't throw an error, please explain to me in more detail why?

The answer by T.J. Crowder was:

I wasn’t able to find an explanation to as why this doesn’t throw an error.

In the first example, you’re trying to read the value of a completely undefined identifier. In the second example, you’re trying to read a property from an object that the object may not have.

Trying to read the value of an undefined identifier is a ReferenceError; the JavaScript engine has no idea what that identifer is. In contrast, trying to read the value of a property that the object doesn’t have yields the value undefined.

It’s just how the language is designed, where Brendan Eich drew the line: It’s okay to read the value of a non-existant property from an object, but not okay to read the value of an undeclared identifier.

I should point out a third option: typeof. You’re allowed to provide an undefined identifier as the operand to typeof:

if (typeof AdMob === "undefined")

That won’t throw a ReferenceError even if AdMob is undeclared; instead, typeof will yield "undefined". (It will also yield "undefined' if AdMob is a declared identifier with the value undefined in it.)

In a comment on another answer, you said:

…it would just indeed help to see the exact official specification which confirms this.

That would be the ECMAScript specification, specifically §6.2.3.1 for throwing a ReferenceError on an unresolvable symbol, and §9.1.8 for returning undefined for a property that doesn’t exist. But I should warnin you that the spec, especially this 6th edition spec, is very heavy going. 🙂

Why doesn’t #window.something throw an #error in @ionicframework? #javascript https://t.co/e0vMYiHJAU pic.twitter.com/lPHcStpDA5

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) February 11, 2016

In this StackOverflow question I answered what to do when you get an unexpected token ‘\u0000’ error when using npm install -g to install some package.

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%). In this category (stackoverflow) of posts, I will be posting my top rated questions and answers. This, btw, is allowed as explained in the meta thread here.

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework lately and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework. I’m currently #3 in the top All time answerers list.

I answered this question by user Bruce Whealton:

This is probably a Windows specific issue but I haven’t found any information when googling this issue. I had been using ionic framework which relies on Cordova (or Phonegap). However, the problem is not specific to any of these packages. I see this error quite often. So, the error is when I run a command such as the following:

npm install -g cordova

However, I could substitute various other packages and get the same error. I’ll paste the snippet (very brief) below of the error message. What is strange is that I had an ionic project working in that directory earlier. Then today it told me that ionic could not be found. My hunch is that this is a different issue than the main issue I am describing here.

I installed git bash so I do have a linux-like environment that I could try. I would just select Git Bash for a bash window with various bash commands. If there is an easier way to fix this for Windows users, please let me know. I have seen courses on Pluralsight where the instructors seem to be happily using npm with no problems. Also, when I use yeoman, I also at some point, in many cases, get the same error.
The error is

npm ERR! Failed to parse json
npm Unexpected token '\u0000' at 1:1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! ^
npm ERR! File: c:\Users\Bruce\AppData\Roaming\npm-cache\amdefine\1.0.0\package\package.json
npm ERR! Failed to parse package.json data.
npm ERR! package.json must be actual JSON, not just JavaScript.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! This is not a bug in npm
npm ERR! Tell the package author to fix their package.json file. JSON.parse.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice, Bruce

My answer was:

Via this question on SO it could be that you just have to do:

npm cache clean

But, also try the other methods suggested there like adding the registry option:

npm install <packagename> --registry http://registry.npmjs.org/.

Or, if you’ve been mingling with the package.json file by yourself, check if it’s valid.

Why am I getting Unexpected token ‘u0000’ when using #npm install -g package #node https://t.co/mjvmpMKuAT pic.twitter.com/HlqJ5S7PZ5

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) February 9, 2016

In this StackOverflow question I answered what do actually Yeoman Generators add to the Ionic projects.

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%). In this category (stackoverflow) of posts, I will be posting my top rated questions and answers. This, btw, is allowed as explained in the meta thread here.

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework lately and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework. I’m currently #3 in the top All time answerers list.

I answered this question by user qizzacious:

I don’t understand why the generator-ionic (along with other ionic + Yeoman project)s are so popular.

I don’t see what the advantages are in using a yeomen generator in this case, this is.

I understand why the Ionic framework is useful in a Cordova project (as we all know, the UI, ngCordova plugins, it uses AngularJS, ect) but what specifically does the Yeoman component add that a basic Ionic project doesn’t already have or that cannot be easily added with a bower install.

It seems to me that the Yeoman ionic projects just seem to be unnecessary bloat and can lead to more errors and library issues. I just do not see how components like karma and grunt (as opposed to ionic using gulp) fit into help with development.

My answer was:

True, you can set all this up by yourself. However, imagine setting this up on each and every project that you start. Kind of cumbersome, don’t you think?

That’s why some people tend to create these generators – to save you (if you like) the time of having to scaffold your application every time from beginning. Usually they provide some features (about which you can read on the Github pages) or they may even enforce some kind of project directory layout (which may help with big projects).

All in all, you don’t have to use them, or stress about them. For instance, I personally don’t use them on every project, but I appreciate the community effort and when I want to try something quick I tend to test them from time to time to see how they’ve evolved.

Don’t hate, donate 😉 (Sure sure, I know you’re not hating, the statement just seemed appropriate).

What do #Yeoman #Generators "really" add to #Ionic Projects? @ionicframework https://t.co/GIbcndBiIQ

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) February 2, 2016

In this StackOverflow question I answered how to handle when external API server is offline.

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%). In this category (stackoverflow) of posts, I will be posting my top rated questions and answers. This, btw, is allowed as explained in the meta thread here.

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework lately and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework. I’m currently #3 in the top All time answerers list.

I answered this question by user Rflujowa:

I’m writing a app in ionic. The app relies on external api’s. I’ve made multiple functions to test the connection, to my own server, and my own server handles the api calls. My own server is needed for this because of ip-whitelistening.

All works well, but now i want to disable the application if the result from my own server is false. I make a call to test the connection everytime the app starts.

What is the best way to handle this with angular/ionic?

1 thought i had myself is to redirect to a landingpage, if no connection is available.

Any tips are welcome.

My answer was:

Yes, basically what you planned to do is OK.

So, just after your app loads up, check if the connection is available (you can read more about how to do that in my detailed post How to check network information change with Ionic framework), and if not then you can change the state to some page where it would clearly let the user know that “Currently the link to the server is not working” (or some better notification).

Also, probably you would want to put a refresh button on that page, so that one could click it and the whole availability process would be checked again (basically same as if someone restarted your app).

Hope this helps.

How to handle when external #API server is offline in @ionicframework? https://t.co/FSGt6AoXCQ

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) January 19, 2016

I’m a big fan of Stack Overflow, and I tend to contribute regularly (am currently in the top 0.X%).

As you may know, I’m really into Ionic framework and am helping out on StackOverflow with the knowledge I gained so far with the framework.

Finally, I reached my goal and made it to the #1 position in the top All time answerers list, and finally, obtained my first “ionic” tag badge:

See you at the golden badge 😉

I made it to the #top of #StackOverflow's all time answerers list for @ionicframework tag https://t.co/X8iR2gi7DD pic.twitter.com/awmvGnHljQ

— Nikola Brežnjak (@HitmanHR) January 14, 2016