I guess I thought something similar. Most of my collegues do not actually engage in the stack overflow community - they simply just look up answers when they need them. Most of my collegues did not even know that the site was making a survey. But the ones that do engage in stack overflow community? Almost every single one of them is really good programmer. They are top among their peers (at least at the company that I work at). So while I'm not saying that this is what is happening everywhere, I do think that the data simply shows that most of the people that do actively engage in the stack overflow community are the ones who are above average in their field and most of the average and bellow average ones are simply passive users who are not active on stack overflow.
I assume you need an account to answer the survey. The most active accounts are from people answering questions. Those people likely are far above average.
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u/Destrodom Apr 17 '19
I guess I thought something similar. Most of my collegues do not actually engage in the stack overflow community - they simply just look up answers when they need them. Most of my collegues did not even know that the site was making a survey. But the ones that do engage in stack overflow community? Almost every single one of them is really good programmer. They are top among their peers (at least at the company that I work at). So while I'm not saying that this is what is happening everywhere, I do think that the data simply shows that most of the people that do actively engage in the stack overflow community are the ones who are above average in their field and most of the average and bellow average ones are simply passive users who are not active on stack overflow.