The only constant in the tech universe is change. Our stars are tools, frameworks, platforms, programming languages, software development methodologies, practices, etc. New tech stars are born daily. Some live longer than others. Eventually, they all burn out. How does a technologist stay current in the rapidly changing tech universe? This is the question I have been asked a lot.

In the context of this post “a change” means any change in state of the aforementioned stars. For instance, a new star (process, tool, and others) is created, becomes popular, seizes to be popular, loses support, gets funding…  

The change funnel

Over time we become aware of lots of changes, but we only become proficient in few. This is the change funnel.

In this post I’m going to focus on the Awareness stage from personal perspective. There are two aspects to it:

• The What – the kind of information I consume.
• The How – the system I use to consume the information.

The What

The goal is to absorb all the daily tech industry changes. Since that is unreasonable, I optimize for the topics that matter to me. They fluctuate as my career evolves. My current interests are slightly different today than they were a year ago. They will likely be different in a year as well. These are the topics I follow today:

• Software architecture
• JavaScript ecosystem (JavaScript language, bundlers, transpilres, package managers, typescript, frameworks)
• Web ecosystem (CSS, HTML, browsers)
• .NET ecosystem
• Windows platform
• React Native
• Azure
• Tech news (general news about tech companies, startups, products)
• Software development practices/methodologies
• UI design

Constraining myself with topics makes it more manageable to consume the information. However, it is not enough.

The How

A well-designed system allows me to consume the topics daily without getting overwhelmed, stressed out, and eventually burning out. I optimize for:

• Maximum time for consuming the information
• Minimum number of different tools (digital and physical) used for consuming the information
• Minimum tool overhead cost
• Minimum overhead cost for engaging with the information source

Maximum time for consuming the information

This optimization is the hardest one to make. It fluctuates frequently due to various factors including the ones beyond my control. I have been making intentional changes in my life to cut out distractions that provide little to no value and make space for the ones that do. These are changes I have made over the years:

• No social media except for twitter which I use exclusively for professional purposes no more than 15 minutes per day.
• No TV (YouTube and similar services). This one I have relaxed a bit recently to support family life. TV on weekend evenings only.
• Limit non-tech news to 30 min per day
• Multitask whenever the main activity does not demand active listening or thinking. Appropriate activities include driving a car, doing chores, walking, washing dishes, preparing meals, eating, and others.

Minimum number of different tools used for consuming the information

Digital and physical tools enable me to consume the information. Keeping the number of tools to a minimum reduces the cognitive load multiplied by each tool. Ideally, there is a single tool per information source. If I do have multiple tools for the same source, they should be in sync. This is important so that the same information is not presented even after it has already been consumed in another tool earlier. I have used variety of tools over the years and every once in a while, I find a replacement. I continue to experiment with new ones and replace the existing ones as I discover better alternatives. My tools of choice are:

• Wired earphones (great for bed)
• Wireless over the ear headphones (great for travel and noisy environments)
• Car entertainment system
• RSS reader (web and mobile app)
• Email client (web and mobile app)
• Podcast client (mobile app)
• Twitter client (web and mobile app)
• Browser (desktop and mobile app)

Minimum tool overhead cost

The tool overhead cost involves the cost of acquiring it, onboarding, maintaining it, and offboarding to a different one. Either one of the costs can be a deal breaker. Offboarding – how easy is it to move my data to another tool is often overlooked.

The high maintenance cost commonly leads to the tool abandonment. The cost manifests itself in bugs, loss of information, resetting of selected preferences, and other bugs. Before adding a tool to my portfolio, I ask myself does the benefit outweigh the overhead cost?

Minimum overhead cost for engaging with the information source

The cost of engaging with the source is reverse proportional to the frequency I consume the source. For instance, let’s say there is a source, a website, I like to check for a JavaScript tip of the day. In order to see the tip, I need to open the browser and then type the website URL. Once the web page loads, I need to click on the link that takes me to the tip of the day page. The chances are I will not want to do it every day as it adds too much friction. Alternatively, consider the scenario where the same tip arrives to my mailbox. I only need to open the message to see it clearly presented without any distractions. It is only one click away (assuming I open the email client for other reasons). The key to getting this right is finding the tool that minimizes the friction. This is what has been working for me:

• Website content -> RSS reader (Feedly web and mobile)
• Newsletters -> Email client (Gmail web and mobile])
• Podcasts -> Podcast client (PocketCasts mobile), wired earphones (Pixel earbuds) and wireless headphones (Jabra Elite 85H), car entertainment system.
• Twitter -> Twitter client (web and mobile)

Using an RSS reader

RSS reader of choice is Feedly due to its easy and comprehensive customization, web and mobile support, and ability to onboard from Google Reader (long time ago). Feedly allows me to subscribe to any website updates and tag the source, so it appears in one or more folders. This is great for organizing sources into topics. It lets me easily consume the information around a particular topic. The main screen narrows the topics even more by displaying articles from the favorite sources only. I favorite the sources I aspire to read daily. They automatically show up on the main screen. I can quickly scroll through all the articles which let me consume a large number of articles effortlessly in short amount of time. The rest of 50+ sources I’m subscribed to I consume occasionally by visiting the topic folder.

My favorite subscriptions:

	Azure DevOps Blog Microsoft	DevOps, Git, and Agile updates from the team building Azure DevOps
	.NET Web Development and Tools Blog Microsoft	Free. Cross-platform. Open source. A developer platform for building all your apps.
	Node.js Blog OpenJS Foundation	NodeJS news and release updates.
	The GitHub Blog GitHub	A blog for developers covering techniques, technical guides, and the latest product innovations coming from GitHub.
	The Morning Brew Chris Alcock	Curated aggregator of .NET and web content.
	{Callstack} Blog Callstack	React Native resource.
	React Meta	Official React blog.
	React Native Blog Meta	Official React Native blog.
	React Native for Windows + macOS Blog Microsoft	React Native for Windows + macOS Blog
	The NuGet Blog Microsoft	The latest news, updates, and insights from the NuGet team
	Babel Blog Babel	The latest news, updates, and insights from the Babel team
	ESLint Blog OpenJS Foundation	The latest ESLint news, case studies, tutorials, and resources.
	Jest Blog Meta	The latest news, updates, and insights from the Jest team

Using an email client

Email is a terrific way to consume curated content. I subscribe to a few newsletters around topics of interest. The newsletters provide curated list of articles around the topics. This is a neat trick of letting others do the demanding work of discovery for me to bubble up what matters. In the email client I skim through the articles as they usually only contain summaries. When I find an interesting one, I star/favorite the email message, so it does not get lost in the sea of messages. At the same time if I am on the phone reading it, I open the article in the browser. I do this regardless of whether I plan to read it right away or not. I rely on the browser open tabs for managing my ToRead list. Once I finish reading the article, I close the browser tab. I never have any open tabs that do not require attention. These newsletters land into my inbox regularly:

• React Native by Infinite Red. Staying informed on the React Native ecosystem.
• Vanilla JavaScript by Chris Ferdinandi. Daily plain JavaScript tips.
• Bytes by Tyler from ui.dev. Staying informed on the JavaScript ecosystem has never been so entertaining.
• React Native Now. Handpicked the best React Native news, tutorials, libraries, articles, and videos compiled from around the web.
• Ardalis developer tips by Steve Smith. Developer tech and leadership tips.

Using a podcast client

Podcasts provide a unique value as they are the only medium that can be used in concert with another activity. For instance, one can be doing chores and listening to podcasts at the same time. The selection of shows available is vast, covering a wide variety of topics. I subscribe to 30+ shows. A powerful podcast client enables me to manage them and have the latest episodes ready for listening whenever I want, even when offline. I classify podcasts into 3 playlists: Daily, Weekly, Someday. As the name suggests for the Daily ones, I listen to them first, every day. Once I go through all of them, I tackle the Weekly ones next. Someday ones I checkout from time to time to see if there are any interesting subjects or just to change the daily routine and mix things up.

The podcast management is all hands off. Shows are downloaded, placed into the correct playlist, queued up for listening, and deleted after listening automatically. The client app manages it all. Unlike other methods, this one requires physical hardware, headphones, and a car entertainment system. Turning on the headphones and pressing the play button starts the playback. Turning off the headphones pauses the playback. Similarly, turning on the car and switching to Bluetooth (if not already selected) starts the playback. Turning the car off pauses the playback. Of course, the playback can only start if the app was already running in either case. Otherwise, one would need to launch the app, select the playlist, and hit play. This enables frictionless listening but does not help me with consuming considerable number episodes in the finite amount of time I have.

Luckily, the app has nifty global and show’s specific settings to facilitate that faster consumption. When subscribing to a show I optimize listening like this:

• Skip forward 30 seconds. Since most episodes start with ads, I skip the first 30 (or whatever number is appropriate) seconds.
• Skip the last 10 seconds. Since most episodes end with adds, I skip the last 10 (or whatever number is appropriate) seconds.

Apart from show specific tweaks, I also have made few global ones:

• Trim silence. This removes silence from episodes.
• Listening speed 1.8x. This is the playback speed applied to all shows. I only wish this setting was local to each show instead of being a global one.

According to PocketCasts since November 12, 2017, I have spent 114 days and 10 hours listening. Without any optimizations I would have spent 69% more time!

My favorite shows:

Conclusion

I stay current in the rapidly changing tech universe by continuously adapting the what and the how. The search and discovery of new quality sources never ends. Throughout my career it has shown me the doors I have never even known existed. They have shaped my perspectives and even defined my career path.

Consuming all the information is only possible with an efficient system – the how. I am continuously adapting it to fit my lifestyle and improving it to more efficiently stay abreast with the ever-increasing pace of change.