The Programmer's Apprenticeship - 06: All About the Internet

Word count: 1.4kReading time: 8 min

 2018/09/29

This is the sixth post in the reading notes series for How to Stop Sucking and Be Awesome Instead, published in Chinese as 《程序员的修炼——从优秀到卓越》 (the series title here is The Programmer’s Apprenticeship). The author, Jeff Atwood, is one of the founders of Stack Overflow. His articles cover a wide range of topics. He is a seasoned programmer, manager, and entrepreneur. This book discusses many things beyond programming. Whether you are a junior engineer or a senior engineer, this book is worth reading. As your experience grows, every time you re-read this book, you will gain new insights. Just as the Chinese subtitle “From Good to Great” suggests, the author points out the path for you, but whether you can succeed depends on your own cultivation.

I will excerpt some wonderful remarks from the book and sometimes add my own insights or experiences. The outline of the reading notes is consistent with the outline of the book itself. This is also a method I learned from another source and have been using: “How to Read a Book”. I record it for my own frequent review and for readers’ reference. Below is the The Programmer’s Apprenticeship reading note series:

Reading note (reviewed October 2026): The source essays date from 2007–2012. Their opinions and my reading impressions remain historical; current archiving and platform limits are noted separately. Net-neutrality and copyright rules vary by jurisdiction and date. The summaries below are not verbatim quotations.

Saving the Internet, Preserving All Memories

(Based on Jeff Atwood’s April 1, 2012 essay Preserving The Internet… and Everything Else)

In “Preserving Our Digital Pre-History”, Jeff nominated Jason Scott to be our generation’s digital historian in residence. It looks like a few people must have agreed, because in March 2011, he officially became an archivist at the Internet Archive.

In the 2012 essay, Jeff described Jason’s invitation to visit the Internet Archive. He quoted Stewart Brand’s view of it as the beginning of a remedy for society’s fading memory. That describes the mission, not a claim that a complete record of the Internet already exists.

One immediate benefit is reducing linkrot. We all know the frustration of clicking a dead link. If the Wayback Machine captured the page, its snapshot may help us find the information again.

The Archive also preserves books, audio, video, and software. Archiving everything is an ambition, not a coverage guarantee.

My takeaway: preserving the Internet’s history is worth supporting because it is part of our shared history.

October 2026 update: The Wayback Machine help page does not guarantee that a site has been archived. Images, dynamic scripts, and features depending on the original server may be missing. Save Page Now captures a page, not an entire site or an ongoing crawl. When repairing a dead link, inspect the snapshot’s text, resources, and date in its URL. Keep independent backups of important material.

The Importance of Net Neutrality

(Based on Jeff Atwood’s February 14, 2011 essay The Importance of Net Neutrality)

The essay introduces net neutrality through Lawrence Lessig’s argument: access networks should not discriminate against comparable lawful traffic to favor their own services or disadvantage competitors. This is a policy principle, not a promise of identical speed for every packet or a law applied uniformly worldwide.

Jeff admits he didn’t fully understand its importance until reading Lawrence Lessig and Tim Wu. The core argument is simple: innovation depends on a neutral network.

If the network owners can pick winners and losers (by throttling traffic or charging extra for fast lanes), then the next Google, Netflix, or Facebook might never get off the ground. The Internet was designed to be a dumb network that moves bits without prejudice. Keeping it that way is essential for the future of free speech and innovation.

My takeaway: concentrating control over communication networks can constrain ordinary people’s expression and opportunities to innovate.

Policy timeline update: On January 2, 2025, the US Sixth Circuit set aside the FCC’s 2024 Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet order (FCC 24-52). That is a specific US federal ruling, not a statement of every jurisdiction’s rules. The legal situation described in the 2011 essay should not be read as current.

Copyright Protection on YouTube

(Based on Jeff Atwood’s YouTube vs. Fair Use (September 17, 2010) and YouTube: The Big Copyright Lie (October 7, 2007))

YouTube holds a vast range of creative work and copyright disputes. In 2007, Jeff criticized the gap between its upload rules and the movie or television clips available on the site. His essay was not a statistical survey, and it cannot establish that most popular videos today are unoriginal or infringing. Original work can itself be copyright-protected.

This raises fair use. The US Copyright Office explains four factors: the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the original work, the amount and substantiality used, and the effect on the work’s potential market or value. Commentary, teaching, or research can qualify, but the assessment is case-specific. A short clip, attribution, or noncommercial purpose alone does not settle it; copyright exceptions differ elsewhere.

In 2010, Jeff described uploading a roughly 90-second movie clip. A match led to blocking under the rights holder’s policy, and the rights holder rejected his fair-use dispute. He admired the matching technology while questioning how context could be handled. His account describes a claim and a dispute, not a court ruling that his clip was lawful.

My takeaway: protecting copyright and allowing new creative work require a balance; detecting matching material does not complete that judgment.

October 2026 mechanism update: Content ID matches uploads against audio and video reference files supplied by rights holders, not every copyrighted work in existence. Policies can block, monetize, or track, and can vary by territory. A Content ID claim differs from a removal request or copyright strike. One-to-three-minute Shorts with an active claim are blocked, so do not assume the handling of ordinary longer videos applies.

YouTube’s fair-use guidance states that automated systems cannot decide fair use. A dispute process exists, but filing a dispute is not permission or a successful legal judgment.

The following is the historical Douban description; its traffic figure is not a current measurement.

How to Stop Sucking and Be Awesome Instead is a compilation of the best articles from the Coding Horror blog. The book is divided into 8 chapters, covering topics such as time management, programming methods, web design, testing, user needs, the Internet, game programming, and technical reading. The topics selected by the author are all pain points in a programmer’s career. Many articles have high click-through rates and reply rates on blogs and the Internet. —— from Douban

Jeff Atwood founded the Coding Horror blog (codinghorror.com) in 2004 to record his thoughts and bits and pieces of his software development experience. Today, the blog has nearly 100,000 visits per day. Readers participate in comments, and various views and wisdom collide passionately there. —— from Douban

The writing style of How to Stop Sucking and Be Awesome Instead is humorous, understanding, and caring; it is suitable for programmers at all stages from novice to veteran, and also suitable for students of computer science and related majors who are about to become programmers. How to Stop Sucking and Be Awesome Instead can help readers pay more attention to the human nature and humanistic factors of technical work, thereby achieving a successful turning point in their programmer career. —— from Douban

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