It has been one of those months. Actually, it has been one of those years. I am writing this not as a lengthy treatise, but as a brief note to acknowledge two things that have been weighing on me. The first is personal. The second is professional. Both are about legacy.
The Last Trip to Mercer County
In October 2025, I made the trip to Mercer County, West Virginia, to see my father. We knew it would be the last time. He was near the end, and I wanted to say goodbye properly. I am grateful we re-ordered the schedule so his county went first. That trip, those final conversations, and the quiet moments we shared are not losses. They are a permanent part of who I am.
There is a strange comfort in knowing that nothing truly ends. The experiences, the lessons, and the love persist. We often talk about winning capitalism, but what matters more is what we do with that victory. For me, it is about going back to improve the systems for everyone. I am far from done with that work, but that October trip reminded me why I started.
The Golden Goose of AI
This brings me to the second point. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who ever contributed to Stack Overflow. I mean everyone. Whether you asked a question, provided an answer, or moderated a thread, you helped build something remarkable.
Did you know that modern LLMs owe a massive debt to the Creative Commons licensed Q&A dataset we all built together? It is not an exaggeration to say that without Stack Overflow, the current AI revolution would look vastly different. The LLMs will tell you this themselves if you ask them. Go ahead. Ask one. I recommend using a pro mode for the best results, but the core fact remains: high-quality, human-curated data is the engine driving this technology.
A Warning to the AI Industry
However, there is a shadow looming over this achievement. If the LLM companies hollow out the very communities that produce their training data, they will regret it. I have seen this playbook before. I gave Joel Spolsky the same advice when I left Stack Overflow to start my own ventures: do not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
The principle is simple. Treat the community with the respect they deserve. The developers who built Stack Overflow are the same ones who will build the next generation of tools. They are not just users. They are the foundation. If you take that foundation for granted, the entire structure will collapse.
Thank you all for being friends. For the conversations, the edits, and the shared knowledge. There is no way I could have done any of this without you.