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Read at least HackerNews and possibly some other tech news site regularly. And then make sure to not get too caught up in the hype for new stuff. As someone wo

Read at least HackerNews and possibly some other tech news site regularly. And then make sure to not get too caught up in the hype for new stuff. As someone working in technology, you are going to be learning new stuff continually (or your usefulness is going to diminish over time). By keeping up to date with tech news, you get a lot of context for what people are using, what's coming down the pipe etc. You may end up experimenting with stuff and then you'll be ahead of all your colleagues. It broadens your knowledge, and if you have to deal with clients it means you will usually know what they're talking about. There's a few pitfalls to watch out for though. HN is great, but it is still an echochamber that can be focused on web and related tech. I was mostly an embedded software engineer for years and found comments like 'does anyone even use C anymore' hilarious (yes, see Linux kernel, device drivers, and your washing machine for details). It can also be very easy to end up wanting to push for the 'shiny new thing' too early. I tinkered with Rust from very early on, but it's only in the last 6 months or so that I'd suggest it is ready for use in most companies (depending on application area). Javascript frameworks suffer this problem particularly badly. Mature beats shiny 9 times out of 10 - running into a problem that 100 people have met before and posted about on StackOverflow and your tool caters for, is much better than being the first person to encounter said problem.

niroast 8y ago
Do you have any recommendations for news sites that focus on embedded software? I've recently started a career focusing on embedded tech but most of the interesting stuff I've come across online seems to be confined to blogs from the 90's/00's
- _fs 8y ago
  My favorite, along with about everyone else in the office, is https://hackaday.com https://hackaday.com
Boulth 8y ago
> Read at least HackerNews and possibly some other tech news site regularly. And then make sure to not get too caught up in the hype for new stuff. Interesting because I advise the exact opposite: do not waste time reading HN, just find one thing that is interesting and master it. Then repeat. As much as I like HN there is a lot of noise here. Novice mind can easily fall into a trap looking for signal here.
- rkangel 8y ago
  The advice elsewhere in this thread about focusing on one stack and getting good at it is definitely true. Broadening your knowledge to be aware of other stuff is also useful though. The most useful people are those who understand how multiple things work and fit together.
- donkeyd 8y ago
  > there is a lot of noise here This is true. However, much of what I know about how software development can work, I've learned from reading HN. I've learned loads about cloud, containers, micro services, project problems, etc. This helps me understand all the discussions around me while I was a junior and allowed me to successfully lead development of a SaaS product. If I just focused on learning a single thing, I wouldn't have been able to grasp all the other stuff that is necessary to actually build a product from scratch.
- sevensor 8y ago
  I've gotten a lot of value from reading HN. I've also wasted a lot of time. It helps to develop a personal filter. Mine is * Avoid headlines that make me angry, unless the news is really important. The discussion is never worthwhile, don't even bother. * WSJ, Bloomberg, and WaPo won't let me read articles with w3m, so I skip the article. If the topic is tremendously interesting, I'll check the comments. * TED and nautil.us are the information verison of empty calories. I've never gained any long term benefit from reading them. * Javascript framework churn is intense. It's not worth trying to keep up with the details unless you do web development. If, like me, you don't, it's still worth reading the headlines to keep abreast of what frameworks are popular, what paradigms they embody, and who's pushing them. This changes every six months or so. * It's always worth scanning the comments in threads about programming languages. There are some really interesting people who sometimes jump into those threads and blow your mind. * Know your prejudices and look for information that challenges them. My prejudices are that I think Windows is lame, that MacOS is infuriating, that Javascript is terrible, that vim is better than emacs, and emacs is better than IDEs, and object orientation is a failed paradigm. So I look out for articles that have a different point of view. I've learned that Microsoft has some really interesting technology, that Apple is infuriating even to its own users but it doesn't matter because they're sitting on the world's biggest pile of dollar bills, that Javascript is usually unnecessary but occasionally useful, that kakoune is even better than vim, and that nobody agrees about what object orientation even is.
chipx86 8y ago
Along the lines of reading HackerNews, read TheDailyWTF.com on occasion. It's fun and entertaining, but that's not why I'm recommending it. A lot of the bad code, bad error messages, bad designs, etc. were not necessarily done by someone _incompetent_, but rather people who are simply inexperienced in one way or another, or were in a rush to meet a deadline and weren't careful. (At a former company, working in a team full of very strong engineers, we still found one dialog box of ours end up on that site once, and the issue it demonstrated led us to a bug in the code.) If you start seeing things on there that look like something you'd have done, don't beat yourself up over it, but learn why those are WTFs and re-evaluate how you're writing code/designing software.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> Read at least HackerNews and possibly some other tech news site regularly. Just be warned that places like this are the worst kind of habit-forming variable-reward site. Worse than Facebook, really. Every now and then you'll find here something that will tremendously improve your worldview, programming skill, or propel your career forward. You might then find yourself using this as a justification for wasting disproportionate amount of time on reading random things, instead of doing. (Yes, I'm very much stuck in that trap right now.)

niroast 8y ago

Do you have any recommendations for news sites that focus on embedded software? I've recently started a career focusing on embedded tech but most of the interesting stuff I've come across online seems to be confined to blogs from the 90's/00's

_fs 8y ago
My favorite, along with about everyone else in the office, is https://hackaday.com https://hackaday.com

Boulth 8y ago

> Read at least HackerNews and possibly some other tech news site regularly. And then make sure to not get too caught up in the hype for new stuff. Interesting because I advise the exact opposite: do not waste time reading HN, just find one thing that is interesting and master it. Then repeat. As much as I like HN there is a lot of noise here. Novice mind can easily fall into a trap looking for signal here.

rkangel 8y ago
The advice elsewhere in this thread about focusing on one stack and getting good at it is definitely true. Broadening your knowledge to be aware of other stuff is also useful though. The most useful people are those who understand how multiple things work and fit together.
donkeyd 8y ago
> there is a lot of noise here This is true. However, much of what I know about how software development can work, I've learned from reading HN. I've learned loads about cloud, containers, micro services, project problems, etc. This helps me understand all the discussions around me while I was a junior and allowed me to successfully lead development of a SaaS product. If I just focused on learning a single thing, I wouldn't have been able to grasp all the other stuff that is necessary to actually build a product from scratch.
sevensor 8y ago
I've gotten a lot of value from reading HN. I've also wasted a lot of time. It helps to develop a personal filter. Mine is * Avoid headlines that make me angry, unless the news is really important. The discussion is never worthwhile, don't even bother. * WSJ, Bloomberg, and WaPo won't let me read articles with w3m, so I skip the article. If the topic is tremendously interesting, I'll check the comments. * TED and nautil.us are the information verison of empty calories. I've never gained any long term benefit from reading them. * Javascript framework churn is intense. It's not worth trying to keep up with the details unless you do web development. If, like me, you don't, it's still worth reading the headlines to keep abreast of what frameworks are popular, what paradigms they embody, and who's pushing them. This changes every six months or so. * It's always worth scanning the comments in threads about programming languages. There are some really interesting people who sometimes jump into those threads and blow your mind. * Know your prejudices and look for information that challenges them. My prejudices are that I think Windows is lame, that MacOS is infuriating, that Javascript is terrible, that vim is better than emacs, and emacs is better than IDEs, and object orientation is a failed paradigm. So I look out for articles that have a different point of view. I've learned that Microsoft has some really interesting technology, that Apple is infuriating even to its own users but it doesn't matter because they're sitting on the world's biggest pile of dollar bills, that Javascript is usually unnecessary but occasionally useful, that kakoune is even better than vim, and that nobody agrees about what object orientation even is.

chipx86 8y ago

Along the lines of reading HackerNews, read TheDailyWTF.com on occasion. It's fun and entertaining, but that's not why I'm recommending it. A lot of the bad code, bad error messages, bad designs, etc. were not necessarily done by someone _incompetent_, but rather people who are simply inexperienced in one way or another, or were in a rush to meet a deadline and weren't careful. (At a former company, working in a team full of very strong engineers, we still found one dialog box of ours end up on that site once, and the issue it demonstrated led us to a bug in the code.) If you start seeing things on there that look like something you'd have done, don't beat yourself up over it, but learn why those are WTFs and re-evaluate how you're writing code/designing software.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> Read at least HackerNews and possibly some other tech news site regularly. Just be warned that places like this are the worst kind of habit-forming variable-reward site. Worse than Facebook, really. Every now and then you'll find here something that will tremendously improve your worldview, programming skill, or propel your career forward. You might then find yourself using this as a justification for wasting disproportionate amount of time on reading random things, instead of doing. (Yes, I'm very much stuck in that trap right now.)