Recently, I received some questions from university students like:
“I often have to search on Google for code references — even with basic programming syntax—don’t know if it’s terrible?”
“I usually go to Stack Overflow to find solutions for my problems, so will I become a bad developer? Should I look for a new career path?”
It depends!
In my opinion, the answer depends on the field you are working on (Software Engineering, Computer Science, Networking, Database,…). In some paths (like Computer Science), it may require you to have good logical thinking and brainstorming before using the last resort: do a Google search.
In this article, I will only talk about Software Engineering — also the field I am working on — which focuses on productivity and project quality.
The answer is: NO. Of course not.
No one has the right to judge you as a bad developer just because you searching on Google for code.
For web developers, there are hundreds of HTML tags and tons of CSS properties out there, Javascript is also a “non-strict language” that can mess things up, so how can you easily remember them all?
No developer can confidently say that they can complete a project without having to search Google a few times! Sometimes, we get strange errors and need help, and in most cases, there will be someone on this planet who has encountered the same problem and solved it. Developers are always willing to grow the community, so they always post their solutions on the Internet to help someone else continue with their work without wasting time in vain.
This reminds me of a story about Albert Einstein:
A colleague asked Einstein for his phone number. He picked up the phone directory to look up his phone number, then wrote it on a slip of paper for the student. Dumbfounded, the student said, “You are considered to be the smartest man in the world and you can’t remember your own phone number?”
He replied: “Why should I memorize something when I know where to find it?”
Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow (SO) — the question and answer (Q&A) page that you see every time search for code on Google — is really the best steroid for programmers. I’m serious!
SO operates in the form of example-based — solving problems through example code — it is an extremely powerful way to learn.
Even when you need to do some extra things after copy/paste the code to completely solve the problem, it still reduces the time you need to spend to learn new things. It’s easy to understand small example code snippets, rather than struggling with the endless bunch of code from official documents.
I’m a full-StackOverflow developer
Google search for code references/solutions also helps you write better code, and avoid using temporary workaround solution.
It helps you understand and solve the problem thoroughly and completely. Some developers just use try-catch or null checks rather than searching for the root cause of the Exception.
It also helps you avoid wasting time reading tons of documents along with endless code examples, which leads to failing to catch up with deadlines.
As a Software Engineer, I spend most of my time brainstorming on how to improve our apps. I always focus on designing technical workflow, optimizing system architecture, and solving problems. Focusing on the bigger picture is better for your work than trying to remember programming syntax like to_upper(), upper(), or toUpper(). With such a problem, I can easily search to find it almost immediately.
There is no reason to reinvent the wheel once it has been resolved and applied successfully.
But…
You should never abuse Google search or rely on StackOverflow!
Don't just copy/paste anything you found. Make sure you understand the solution before implementing it into your project.
To be a good developer, you should always understand what you are doing:
WHAT is the problem?
HOW does this solution work? HOW does it solve your problem?
WHY did you choose this solution (out of other solutions from the search results)?
Follow this path, you will learn new things as quickly as possible, and those problems will not bother you anymore in the future.
Learning is about finding and understanding. But if you just keep "finding" without “understanding”, then it’s your fault.
Generative AI - the new game changer
This article was originally published on my personal blog and Medium in November 2017. At this time, StackOverflow is the only hope for developers.
With the introduction of Generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot,…), the game has changed. There are many things to discuss, but I will talk about it in another article.
Other resources
There are also other dev communities similar to Stack Overflow:
Reddit: r/programming, r/java, r/androiddev,…
Happy coding~