Jeff Atwood

Jeff Atwood
Atwood in 2008
Born1970 (age 55–56)[1][2]
Alma materUniversity of Virginia
OccupationsSoftware developer, writer
Known forCoding Horror (blog), Stack Overflow, Stack Exchange[3]
WebsiteCoding Horror (blog)

Jeff Atwood (born 1970) is an American software developer, author, blogger, and entrepreneur. He co-founded the question-and-answer network Stack Exchange, which contains the Stack Overflow website for computer programming questions.[4] He is the owner and writer of the computer programming blog Coding Horror, focused on programming and human factors.[5]

Early life and education

Atwood started at the University of Virginia in 1988 and graduated in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in environmental science with a minor in computer science.[6]

Career

Atwood started the programming blog Coding Horror in 2004. As a result, he met Joel Spolsky.[7] In 2008, Spolsky and Atwood founded Stack Overflow, a programming question-and-answer website.[8] The site was followed by Server Fault for system administrators and Super User for general computer-related questions, eventually becoming the Stack Exchange network, which includes many Q&A websites about topics decided on by the community.[9]

From 2008 to 2014, Atwood and Spolsky published a weekly podcast covering the progress, Stack Exchange Podcast, and a wide range of software development issues.[10] Jeff Atwood was also a keynote presenter at the 2008 Canadian University Software Engineering Conference.[11]

In February 2012, Atwood left Stack Exchange to spend more time with his family.[12]

On February 5, 2013, Atwood announced his new company, Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc. Its flagship product is an open source next-generation discussion platform called Discourse.[13] Atwood and others developed it out of frustration with then-current bulletin board software, which hadn't evolved since 1990.[13] On February 1, 2023, he stepped down as CEO and assumed the role of Executive Chairman.[14]

Atwood, together with WASD Keyboards, launched a mechanical keyboard, CODE, in 2013.[15]

In 2021, Stack Overflow was sold to Prosus for $1.8 billion.[16]

Philanthropy

In January 2025, Atwood announced one million dollar gifts to eight non-profit organizations,[17][18] including The Trevor Project, an organization dedicated to suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ+ youth.[19] In addition, Children’s Hunger Fund, First Generation Investors, Global Refuge, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, PEN America, Planned Parenthood, and Team Rubicon received donations from Atwood and his family.[17][18][19]

Atwood and his family have contributed to Alameda Post and the Alameda Food Bank.[17]

Atwood donated $1.5 million to 404 Media, a nonprofit news site.[17]

Atwood donated $100,000 to Precious Plastic, a nonprofit fighting plastic pollution.[20]

In 2025, Atwood started the Rural Guaranteed Minimum Income Initiative (RGMII), studying the effects of cash payments to citizens in 3 rural counties: Mercer County West Virginia, Beaufort County North Carolina, and Warren County Mississippi.[21][22]

Personal

Atwood is a resident of Alameda, California.[17] He and his partner, Betsy Burton, have three kids.[17]

Books

  • The ASP.NET 2.0 Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks, by Scott Allen, Jeff Atwood, Wyatt Barnett, Jon Galloway and Phil Haack. ISBN 978-0980285819
  • Effective Programming: More Than Writing Code. ISBN 9781478300540

References

  1. ^ Atwood, Jeff (August 8, 2012). "I Was a Teenage Hacker". Coding Horror. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  2. ^ Atwood, Jeff (May 9, 2006). "The Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming". Coding Horror. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  3. ^ Finley, Klint (July 5, 2012). "Stack Overflow Man Remakes Net One Answer at a Time". Wired. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  4. ^ Finley, Klint. "Stack Overflow Man Remakes Net One Answer at a Time". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  5. ^ Kumparak, Greg (August 28, 2013). "StackOverflow Co-Founder Jeff Atwood Builds A $150 Mechanical Keyboard". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  6. ^ Kelly, Jane. "Tech Multimillionaire, UVA Grad, Pledges To Give Away Half His Wealth".
  7. ^ Rosoff, Matt. "Online communities don't have to be hate-filled cesspools — and this guy proved it". Business Insider. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  8. ^ Somers, James (October 5, 2023). "How Will A.I. Learn Next?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  9. ^ "State of Programming with Jeff Atwood". Software Engineering Daily. March 15, 2016.
  10. ^ Popper, Ben (December 14, 2021). "Podcast 400: An oral history of Stack Overflow - told by its founding team". The Stack Overflow Podcast - The Stack Overflow Blog. Archived from the original on September 1, 2025. Retrieved October 27, 2025. Stack Overflow founders Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky talk about how, in 2008, they started this very podcast by recording their weekly calls about a little product they wanted to build. Their conversations, which soon included Geoff Dalgas and Jarrod Dixon, are now an audit trail for the creation of Stack Overflow [...]
  11. ^ "Is Writing More Important Than Programming?". Archive of Previous Presentations. CUSEC. 2008. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 27, 2013.
  12. ^ "Jeff Atwood bids adieu to Stack Exchange for the best reason ever". techcrunch.com. AOL. February 7, 2012.
  13. ^ a b Ha, Anthony (February 5, 2013). "Stack Exchange Co-Founder Jeff Atwood Launches Forums Startup Discourse, With Funding From First Round, Greylock, And SV Angel". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  14. ^ "Sam Saffron and Sarah Hawk named Discourse Co-CEOs". Discourse. January 31, 2023. Retrieved February 9, 2023.
  15. ^ Noe, Rain. "Software Programmer Schools Industrial Designers. This, Folks, is How You Design a Keyboard".
  16. ^ Dummett, Ben (June 2, 2021). "Stack Overflow Sold to Tech Giant Prosus for $1.8 Billion. Deal is Prosus’ biggest investment in online learning and comes weeks after it sold a chunk from its massive Tencent holding". Wall Street Journal.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Stiffman, Eden (January 16, 2025). A New Giving Pledge? Tech Mogul Promises Accelerated Donations. Inspired by MacKenzie Scott and critical of the Buffett-Gates pact, the co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse is giving away half his wealth in five years. The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
  18. ^ a b Atwood, Jeff (January 7 2025). Stay Gold, America.
  19. ^ a b "Stack Overflow Co-Founder Jeff Atwood Donates $1 Million to The Trevor Project". The Trevor Project. January 7, 2025. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  20. ^ "Precious Plastic V5". preciousplastic.com. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
  21. ^ https://rgmii.org/why-pledge-to-share-the-american-dream/
  22. ^ https://time.com/collections/time100-philanthropy-2025/
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