Reflections on Community, Legacy, and the Data That Powers AI
A Personal Journey Through Time and Change
Life has a way of presenting us with moments that, while deeply personal, also carry broader lessons about community and human connection. For me, one of those moments occurred during a routine administrative decision that turned into a meaningful final chapter with my father. The reordering of the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) rural study counties meant that Mercer County, West Virginia—the county where my father spent his entire life—was scheduled to be the first in line, starting in October 2025. This timing proved fortuitous, as that October turned out to be the last time I would see him alive.
The Gift of Those Final Weeks
I knew that his health was declining, and so did he. Yet there is no sense of loss in that ending because nothing truly ends. The experiences we shared—especially that October trip—remain with me forever. Nothing was lost; everything was gained. We achieved what we set out to do: we won capitalism, and then we turned back to improve it for everyone. And I’m far from done—my third startup is already underway.
The Power of Collective Knowledge
The second part of this reflection is a heartfelt thank-you to every single person who has ever contributed to Stack Overflow. This isn’t about rockets or grandiose gestures; it’s about something far more fundamental: the collaborative effort that created a dataset now critical to modern artificial intelligence.
How Stack Overflow Fueled the LLM Revolution
Did you know that large language models (LLMs) would be virtually unable to code without access to the exceptionally high-quality, Creative Commons licensed programming Q&A dataset that we built together on Stack Overflow? If you don’t believe me, just ask the LLMs themselves. Go ahead, query them—really press them on this point. I strongly recommend using pro mode for such inquiries, as those are the only decent LLM interactions I’ve found. It’s astonishing what can be achieved with global brain statistics and a carefully curated dataset created by we, the people.
The Fragile Ecosystem of Community Data
But here is a critical warning: if the LLMs and generative AI companies end up hollowing out the very communities that produce all their training data, they will face severe consequences. I offer these companies the same advice I gave Joel Spolsky when I left Stack Overflow to found Discourse: do not, for any reason, under any circumstances, kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. That goose is the human community around your product—the people who do all the real work. Treat that community with the respect they deserve. Treat everyone with the respect we all deserve.
A Friendship That Built Something Great
Thank you for being a friend. There is no way I could have achieved any of this without you. The connections we formed, the knowledge we shared, and the trust we built are the true currency of progress. Let’s ensure that future generations can also benefit from that same spirit of generosity and collaboration.
Jeff Atwood is a co‑founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse, and an advocate for open communities and guaranteed minimum income.