# I’m going to have to point out that this survey will be biased.

* * *

I’m going to have to point out that this survey will be biased. At least this
is a Stack Overflow survey rather than a Y Combinator survey (which would be
far worse), but even here — I use SO all the time but have never been asked to
fill out this survey; many if not most people who use SO in the course of
their jobs or for help with personal projects don’t even have accounts
(because SO works better as a passive repository of historical good answers to
common questions than as a means to have a novel question answered in a
reasonable length of time — I’ve asked five or six questions and I’ve only
ever gotten one response, months after I posted the question). In other words,
only people who have an SO account and frequently ask or answer questions will
be represented — and then, only those who feel like they have enough free time
to fill out a survey.

By [John Ohno](https://medium.com/@enkiv2) on [March 22,
2016](https://medium.com/p/a435ce4c09fc).

[Canonical link](https://medium.com/@enkiv2/i-m-going-to-have-to-point-out-
that-this-survey-will-be-biased-a435ce4c09fc)

Exported from [Medium](https://medium.com) on September 18, 2020.