How I keep up with latest trends
Photo by Fotis Fotopoulos on Unsplash
The Question
It's sometimes exhausting to be a developer.
I knew this going in and developed a few habits to keep me in the loop. This became more important once the rate of what I needed to know increased. Where today things are almost exhausting to keep up with.
I've been asked by a few people over the years the exact question of "How do you keep up with latest trends?". It's a simple question, but one where I try to give a nuanced, and "different" answer. Most people think of looking to social media, such as reddit, linkedin, instagram, and youtube. But I don't actually use these to keep track of the latest trends.
I use something more old school, I use RSS feeds and inoreader, which is an RSS feed aggregator.
So what's an RSS feed?
Here's the copy paste description from Wikipedia
RSS (RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many different websites in a single news aggregator, which constantly monitors sites for new content, removing the need for the user to manually check them.
So essentially, an RSS feed is a way for you to subscribe to a source of content using a tool such as inoreader, which will keep track of new content.
My Workflow Philosophy
In terms of workflow I keep to my guns and do not actually change my workflow very quickly or dramatically. I try to make the most out of the tools I'm currently using until something breaks, rather than trying to chase drastic changes. Because of this, I'm aware of trends but might not actually leverage them until I see more general traction and learn more about it. For example, leveraging AI has been something I've been using consistently but never full on the "hype train". This is yet another reason why I started this blog, it's to help me consolidate and explain these things in a structured format.
It's true that we live in the "information age", with more information than ever being able to be consumed any multitude of ways. Just like dieting, and watching what you eat, I believe in curating and managing what information I consume. Not only for keeping up with technology trends, but also to stay aware of the world, while avoiding the "traps" of attention that can be social media based sites and services.
Sources and Tools I Use
- inoreader - My primary RSS feed reader
- YouTube - I do actually use youtube, but only as a rough guide. I rarely watch videos that are over 10 minutes, largely to get an idea before jumping in myself. I also only watch a handful of core channels, and avoid any number of common sources
Types of RSS Feeds
Types of RSS feeds I look to leverage:
- Blog sites for known technology, such as the blogs for specific technologies such as React, or tooling like vite. These tools post news updates, which you can directly follow
- Individual publication (is it weird I follow myself lol?)
- I largely ignore medium or other social sites as "too spammy", you could follow medium authors or topics, but again it spits out too many articles.
The Skimming Strategy
I skim most sections and rarely read individual articles, this gives a high level idea of what people are talking about, without actually participating in social media. There is no doom scrolling unless I deliberately set it up that way. I do miss out on a huge number of things, but by sheer consistency I will notice articles and topics that pop up more often than others. I also have a folder that I read every article in, so I cannot miss anything for these "favorites".
Read later, and inbox zero
I have the inoreader extension for my browser, which allows me to add whatever site I find interesting to my "read later" list. This way regardless of where the content is I can "add it" into my inoreader feed as a "read later item". I'm a stickler for inbox zero, so I continually go through my read later list when I get a chance. I never actually get to inbox zero, but I do keep it manageable.
YouTube
I watch YouTube mostly for entertainment, but in regards to development and learning I look out for either shorts on a given topic, or short-form content videos going over a given technology. These videos are more for me to understand what a given technology could provide to me, rather than for me to learn all aspects of it. I don't really watch long format content as it's too hard to pay attention, and I can just as easily read the docs as my own pace as needed. This is also where individual doc pages can be saved to my inoreader and be read when I get a chance.
The current channels I recommend for short format content:
- web dev simplified - main channel to learn about web dev stuff, very minimal fluff
- devopstoolbox - where I got "inspired" to improve my terminal setup
- fireship - especially their "in 100 seconds" series
Example RSS feeds
Here's some example RSS feeds/sites I follow for web development:
- https://blog.github.com/ - GitHub's blog, where they post about product updates. I use a lot of github oriented products for my personal development workflow, so I like staying in the loop
- https://techcrunch.com/ - tech blog, great for high level topics. One of the "skimmers" I glance at along with other similar sites to get an idea of common trends at a glance
- https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ - tech blog, great for in-depth guides. I find myself saving an article here or there to read up in depth later. Otherwise another site I skim through a majority of the time to get idea of trends.
- https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/ - tech fail blog, I have a few "fun" sites I track, this is one that I paid more attention to with the whole "web3" trend. Stuff still comes up, and web3 is "still going great" (You will not hear me talk about web3 in this blog basically ever again)
Wrapping up
Like most things, I think getting the most out of what you have is more important than trying to change more ways to do the same things. (hopefully that makes sense), I really only use 2 tools, but those two tools cover all gaps and bypass all the junk out there. I could be missing out and slow to adapt to trends, but I won't be unaware of them, and if they are that important and impactful I will eventually follow up on them as I see more of them through my RSS feed.
So yea, I like reading and keeping up with things my own way. I think I can write a bit more about this topic, specifically how I use inoreader, and a few other sources to fill my free time with something more positive rather than doom scrolling, but this broader topic will be for another time.
Until next time, keep learning, keep building, and keep asking questions!
PS Bonus points if you follow this site yourself! See the footer below for the RSS and ATOM feed. Most modern RSS feed aggregators can handle either.