We all know things are moving fast in the technology sector. New tools, libraries, and frameworks are released continuously. It feels like we are continually playing catch up with the latest technologies, and that we are never up to date. The feeling is even more prominent in beginners.
Therefore, how can we stay up to date with the tech sector? First of all, I want to emphasise that you do not have to learn everything new. By doing so, you do not have time to specialise in anything, and you remain a novice. Secondly, you should be very selective when learning a new technology, as it might become obsolete fast. Let technologies mature, and be careful when picking something new to learn.
Anyways, the point of this article is to help you stay up to date as a developer. As a result, I want to recommend to you some ways you can do so. What I present in the article is not the only way; it is the way I do it.
News aggregators
Having a lot of information available is both a blessing and a curse. The benefit is that you always have options to choose from. The curse is that you do not know what to choose. However, it does not have to be like that. There are ways we can curate information, and get only the information that interests us.
I do not use news aggregators much, except for one. The one I am using for almost one year now is daily.dev. Daily is a Chrome/Firefox extension, which delivers the best programming news for you. What does that mean? It means that you install the extension, and instead of having the blank new tab, you have a screen with tech news from trusted sources.
Figure 1
Figure 1 illustrates an example from Chrome. If you cannot see the image correctly, right-click on it, and you can see the big picture. It is a handy browser extension that delivers all the news to your tab. Thus, all that is left for you is to read the articles. I want to mention that they do not pay me to give them publicity. The reason why I gave them free advertising everywhere is that they are amazing, and it makes it easier to stay up to date with the technology world.
In conclusion, Daily is the only news aggregator I use. It is time-saving, useful, and handy.
Newsletters
Subscribing to newsletters is an excellent way to get lots of valuable information to your email. However, there are many newsletters and it might be difficult to choose between them. Thus, the purpose of this section is to answer the following question - what newsletters should you subscribe to?
The newsletters I am subscribed to are as follows (no particular order):
- TLDR => It is a daily, curated newsletter with links and TLDRs of the most exciting stories in the tech scene. I like how the newsletter is laid out, and the information they ship out. They cover topics such as big tech & startups, science & futuristic technology, programming, design, data science, and miscellaneous news. I guarantee that you find something interesting in all editions.
- freeCodeCamp =>There is not much to say about this newsletter. I suppose you already know the great work they are doing. Quincy Larson, the founder, shares articles from their platform in this newsletter. Worth subscribing!
- Mastering JS Weekly =>If you are a web developer, especially if you are using JavaScript, you want to subscribe to this newsletter. They talk a lot about JavaScript in the newsletter, but they also talk about topics like Docker, for example.
- Pointer => I like this newsletter the most because it covers topics such as soft skills in software engineering as well. For instance, in one of the issues, they sent really interesting information such as passing your senior engineering coding interview, how someone went from a dev position to the VP of R&D in 25 months, and so on. It is a great newsletter.
- Bytes => Bytes is a newsletter from Tyler McGinnis, who is a popular JavaScript/React instructor. The newsletter is an aggregation of articles from the community. It is cool and informative.
That is all about it when it comes to newsletters. These are the newsletter I am subscribed to, and the letters I enjoy reading. They keep me up to date by sharing information from the community. Therefore, they are a great way to see the latest and most exciting topics from the tech scene.
By the way, if you have any newsletter recommendations, feel free to drop them below.
Blogs
I want to recommend blogging platforms instead of individuals. Why? I prefer blogging platforms because you can discover more authors and a more diverse pool of topics. You find topics ranging from web development to self-improvement, and more.
The two blogging platforms where I am active, and I enjoy the most are Dev To and Hashnode. People on these platforms are active, there is a lot of information available, and you can write there too. They encourage everyone to write, regardless of their knowledge level. Therefore, there is content for everyone. Moreover, they have special categories and tags, so you can only follow the topics that interest you.
From my point of view, they are one of the best sources for information. I use them regularly to stay up-to-date and to write articles.
Social media platforms
Social media platforms are great to stay up-to-date, as well. There are many accounts you can follow to get the latest news from the tech world. Let us see some of the accounts I recommend:
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ThePracticalDev (Dev To) => Dev To is a community of software developers who write articles, and take part in discussions. In simpler words, it is a platform where people can register and post articles. Why should you follow them? They share articles from their platform on their Twitter accounts, which means you always have articles at your fingertips. Thus, it makes it convenient to stay up-to-date.
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Hashnode => Similarly, Hashnode is a content creation platform and community. It allows people to publish articles, and to stay connected with a developer community. Like ThePracticalDev, it is a platform where people can post articles. In the most straightforward words, it is a blogging platform. They, too, share the articles people write on their platform. As a result, you can get a lot of new information without much effort.
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FreeCodeCamp => Everyone knows FreeCodeCamp. For the article, I am going to explain it again. FreeCodeCamp it is a platform where you can learn web development. They also have a YouTube channel where they post tutorials and a platform for blogging where selected authors write articles. They share a lot of useful information and valuable free courses.
These are the accounts I check when I want to find new information or to learn something new. Of course, the list is not exhaustive, and there are many other useful accounts. I encourage you to reply with your favourite accounts from where you consume tech news.
Conclusion
The article illustrates my way of staying up-to-date as a developer. It is not the only way or the best way. In fact, I would appreciate it if you would reply with your methods of staying up-to-date.
To recap:
- Use the Daily Dev extension.
- Subscribe to the non-exhaustive list of newsletters presented in the article.
- Use blogging platforms such as Hashnode and Dev To to find news and tutorials.
- Follow Hashnode, FreeCodeCamp and Dev To on social media platforms.