I think a lot of people use forums and stack overflow to find information about a problem they are facing. But you're right, specs, docs, and code are other sources that I hadn't mentioned. I find that forums and stack overflow have utility beyond the documentation, because the docs don't contain information about issues people have faced in the past and accounts about how they have been solved.

But the same idea applies to specs/docs -- instead of reading the specs or the docs, I'd rather be talking to a LLM trained on the specs and docs.

There was a point where I started to dive more into specs, docs, and code, and less relying on finding the answer I'm after.

But in defence of those spending hours on forums, sometimes a project is not well documented, and the code isn't easy to read. In those situations though, I'll be browsing their Github issues or contacting them directly.

Often though I find it highly valuable to go read the docs, even if an LLM has given me a working example. Sometimes, I find better ways, warnings, or even information on unrelated things I want to do.