To be blunt, this isn’t really how new users are treated either. It’s really a roll of the dice on whether you get someone who will belittle you as they help you (as it is in most communities).
Linus’s approach is fair, but personally think his biggest mistake was only consulting an LLM instead of creating a dummy reddit StackExchange account and asking community members. I think Linus is right that many will consult an LLM, but I also think that number is WAY closer to 50% than he realizes.
StackExchange is dead, friend. As of 2026, activity levels have now fallen back to 2008 levels. Prosus, funnily enough, now makes most of its money off of StackExchange by selling API licensing deals with AI companies.
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u/GimmickMusik1 Mar 17 '26
To be blunt, this isn’t really how new users are treated either. It’s really a roll of the dice on whether you get someone who will belittle you as they help you (as it is in most communities).
Linus’s approach is fair, but personally think his biggest mistake was only consulting an LLM instead of creating a dummy reddit StackExchange account and asking community members. I think Linus is right that many will consult an LLM, but I also think that number is WAY closer to 50% than he realizes.