What do I get from answering questions? [duplicate]

Question

I have started answering on Stack Overflow two months ago, and I'm giving up a lot of my free time.

What benefit I will get on a personal and professional level by answering on Stack Overflow?

Does it at least improve my knowledge?

Helping others is its own reward. Whether answering improves your knowledge or not is something you'll have to judge yourself. — Magisch, Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 12:06
@Magisch I see productivity If had spent same amount of time reading and learning my self . — kiran Biradar, Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 12:09
The better question is what do I get from voting to close things. — Bernhard Barker, Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 12:24
@kiranBiradar The occasional complement about how good I am at finding duplicates? The occasional complaint about how my close vote is wrong? Frustration? Existential crises? The feeling that I'm helping the site go... absolutely nowhere? — Bernhard Barker, Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 12:28
@Dukeling If you can understand the title's of two questions you might think both or not duplicate? Not a good finder of duplicates? — kiran Biradar, Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 12:32
Not my down vote but to guess, this was down voted due to looking like "SE should give me money" type of post. Reading your comments though, that seems to not be the case, just try to be a bit more careful with your wording to avoid it. — Mark Kirby, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 15:04
@MarkKirby I'm sorry my question meant that way. I always think helping on SO is holy work. — kiran Biradar, Commented Sep 19, 2018 at 15:57

Glorfindel · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-18 12:14:18Z

8

You'll get an addiction to the green badge (+x reputation) on the achievement inbox in the top bar.

No, seriously, I've learnt countless things

while searching for the answer to another person's question.
after reading a 'competing' answer with a much better approach than I thought of
by browsing the Hot Network Questions to 'relax' after working hard on an answer
while writing a detailed explanation about some code I posted as an answer. Writing good code is one thing; being able to explain the principles behind it is another, which can help in transfering the code you write at work to your colleagues.

answered Sep 18, 2018 at 12:10

GlorfindelMod

253k61 gold badges626 silver badges1.3k bronze badges

Yes, I'm addicted to same pleasure as of now :D
– kiran Biradar
Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 12:11

Add a comment |

This_is_NOT_a_forum · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-18 18:27:50Z

Many things, most of which are dependent on your values as a person and if you see the benefit in them.

You help others, which is a reward of its own. (People like being altruistic.)
You help expand and maintain the knowledge base that you yourself probably used a fair bit.
You learn to articulate yourself better (useful for technical writing and if English is not your primary language).
You learn tools to research problems on your own (knowing how to read documentation is important for a developer!)
Teaching has a strong learning effect on its own. I learned a lot about SQL by answering questions about it, for instance.
That intangible, yet rewarding, feeling to have made your mark on the world and to have left it a little better than you found it that day.

2 Answers 2