Catalin Ciubotaru avatar

How to stay up to date

Being a developer is fun, but it takes a lot of time. A lot.

The Problem

So, you did a bootcamp, and after some tedious interviewing, you landed an amazing job 🧳, and you think you’re done. Well, tough luck, you’re not. However, don’t fret. If you’re passionate about what you just learned, more good news is coming: you get to do this forever(learning I mean). During working hours and outside working hours. Getting paid for it, and not getting paid for it.

Long story short, you have to stay up to date. Technology moves very fast, and if you want to stay sharp and grounded, you have to invest time into learning about what else is out there.

Advantages

There’s a lot of benefits to doing this. It’s not like you’re gonna change the framework you use at work every 3 months, but knowing how other frameworks solve the same problem, will make you better at finding solutions. Technology agnostic to some degree.

Sometimes, you will have the opportunity to create something new, and then, you’ll already have a lot of information helping you make the best decision. Sometimes just knowing about a tool that helps you test faster for example, makes a huge difference.

Last but not least, seeing technologies rise and fall, will help you identify what is worth your time, what is just a buzz word and what is here to stay. Like history 🤓.

Disadvantages

It takes time. ⏳️

Disclaimer

I’m not saying you should be an expert at everything, I’m not even saying you should know about everything. All I’m saying is: the more you know, the better a developer you become, by getting inspiration from what’s already out there.

Now, without further ado, here’s what I use to stay up to date.

Solution

Podcasts 🎧

I listen to podcasts every time I’m busy with some menial task, like doing the dishes, or when I’m commuting. Or grocery shopping. I can’t listen to podcasts when I’m working, and I know some people can. In that case, your queue can be longer 😃. Here are some of my favorite tech podcasts:


Twitter 🐦

I spend some time on twitter. I keep it more as a Tech Twitter, and that’s about it. Now, I know it’s a very controversial topic currently, but I still use it. Here are some of the people I follow:


Reddit 🍒

I also spend quite some time on Reddit. Here are some of the subreddits that have useful information, sometimes:


Websites 🌎

I like having small bits of tech stuff delivered to my mailbox once in a while. Your mileage might vary here. Here are a few blogs and websites that I am subscribed to:


YouTube ▶️

Not everybody enjoys watching other people code. I’m part of that group. However, there are a few channels that are an exception to this rule:


Conclusion

Now, this is not an exhaustive list of all the place that I take my info out of. I also use places like Udemy and Pluralsight for courses, HackerNews for news, CodePen, StackBlitz for sandboxing and more. If there’s a particular thing you’re interested in, please let me know.

Want more?

If you want to know more about this, or something doesn't make any sense, please let me know.

Also, if you have questions, you know where to find me… On the internet!

Be kind to each other! 🧡

Over and out


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