Q: Are we programming less due to StackOverflow.com? Are we programming less because we're finding good answers to questions and don't need to figure things out as much? 
Or are we programming less because we're addicted to Stack Overflow and do these cancel each other out? i.e. we are spending the same time programming.

A: In some cases yes, I'm programming less. But I'm learning more.

A: I have established a personal rule for myself - answer at least one question on StackOverflow every day. If nothing else, it broadens the horizons and encourages one to think in different and new ways. Every now and then I bump into a clever idea that I would have never thought about before.

A: You're programming less because you're on Stack Overflow and not getting your work done. When you don't get your work done, you blow deadlines. When you blow these deathlines, chances of losing your job increase. Even to the tipping point of being under or just plain unemployed. 
And when you are, you'll have all the time in the world before the poverty line cuts you in half to answer even more questions on SOFU.

A: If anything SO is opening my eyes to more solutions that I never would have thought of and improving the code that I write.  What's being sacrificed is my non-programming free time -- see here.  I'm getting better though. Started working out again.  Went to a high school football game last night -- though I did come back after and answer a question before I went to bed.  I had to wait for my daughter to get out of the shower -- that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

A: Okay, this is initially going to sound ridiculous, but how do you measure "programming less"?  Counting the total number of minutes you're tapping on the keyboard, perhaps you're programming less.  But if you're using SO effectively as the wonderful tool that it is, you'll be tapping out higher-quality code.  If you're writing fewer lines of good code, are you really writing less than you would be with more lines of poor code?
EDIT: To be clear, I do think that I'm programming more.  Even though it takes time to understand what I read on SO, and I may not bang out as many characters/lines of code, what I produce is better.  Quality matters.

A: We may be programming less, but are we programming better?
Only a beginner thinks the most important part of coding is the actual code - the thought process and planning behind it is vastly more important, and SO is likely to bring forward the best ways to do a task, or the best way to go about a problem.

A: I recently blogged that I was spending more of my spare time writing than coding. That's not just due to Stack Overflow, but it's part of it.
Is that a problem? If so, it's certainly my own fault and no-one else's. Having recently read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, I'm beginning to wonder whether my strength/talent is more in explaining things than in actual coding. That would in some ways be disappointing, but would suggest that I'm using my time reasonably wisely at the moment.
Of course, the danger is that the more time we spend answering, the less time we're spending learning future answers. Maybe if I didn't spend any time on SO, I would know WCF or the Entity Framework by now, for example. There's certainly a danger of continuing to answer after your knowledge has become stale. I think it wouldn't do me any harm to go back to coding a bit more every so often.
Questions like this are good for at least prodding us to consider such matters.

A: Why re-invent the wheel when someone has already done that for you?

A: I often find myself writing more code.
When someone asks how to read some obscure data format with a regex, I will actually go and write a parser for it. Mainly for my own benefit/enjoyment.

A: since you can't catch a photon*, SO is something to do while compiling
[*In the Shadow of the Skeet: You Can't Catch a Photon available in paperback at fine imaginary bookstores worldwide]

A: I wasn't really programming less when I was using SO, usually it'd just be time looking at random articles and such or checking my email. But now that I've discovered MSO, my coding has gone down. Meta is such a huge waste of time. lol
