Tech news practice

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

As a wise man once said:

Technology news moves pretty fast sometimes.

One of the things that I love about what we cover in this class is that it’s ever-changing. Staying up to date with industry news 1 lets you see how what we’re learning is affecting the world right now, and that’s a big deal.

So how should you stay up to date with tech news?

1. Find a curated list of industry news sources that you regularly read

For me, this is Twitter, podcasts, and email newsletters, occasionally supplemented with Apple News. Choose what you’d like, but work toward a diverse list of reputable sources presented in ways that work for you.

As you’re initially building your reading list, follow and subscribe to everything! You never know where you might find something good.

Pretty quickly, though, begin to winnow down your lists to just the sources that provide value. If you leave your feeds polluted with noise, you’ll find yourself less apt to check them.

A few tips for Twitter, in particular:

  • Consider purchasing a third-party client such as Tweetbot or Twitterific. Why? No ads, mostly, but also much more control over your timeline. You do occasionally lag behind on the latest features, though.
  • Consider creating—and then mostly reading—a (private) must-read list. For example, I follow a little over 350 folks on Twitter, but my must-read list is just over 60 folks. I usually read every tweet on my must-read list, and then, if I’m bored, I’ll dip into my broader timeline, which I have no illusions of ever keeping up with.

2. Build a way to save things for later

The moment you find something interesting isn’t always a moment when you have time to read that thing. Tools like Pocket solve that problem, and Pocket’s tags, in particular, are a great way to turn your reading into a searchable library, too.

3. Find people you can talk about the industry with

Luckily, this one is built into the class for you! Each week in your break-out section, you’ll take a few minutes to discuss any items you’ve read. This should be fun!

4. Extra credit—tech news journal

Research shows that it takes a while—a good number of weeks—to build up a habit to the point where it becomes automatic. To encourage you to actually build up this habit, we’re offering extra credit to students who make and keep up with a tech news journal throughout the semester.

Tech news journal guidelines

  • Duplicate this Google Doc template, title it Lastname, Firstname Tech News Journal, set it to “Anyone with the link can view,” and share your URL 👉 here.
  • Whenever you read a bit of tech news—actual news articles, sure, but also Twitter threads, YouTube videos, Reddit AMAs, and whatever, really—add it to your journal as a numbered entry, and reflect on it briefly—two to five sentences is plenty!

Students who choose to participate in this can earn up to 5 points added to their final grade in this course! Credit will be awarded per the list below. Weeks must be completed consecutively, and entries must be posted on at least three separate days in a week.

  • .75 points = 10 entries / three consecutive weeks
  • 1.5 points = 20 entires / six consecutive weeks
  • 5 points = 50 entires / ten weeks

Good follows

These are a few sources that you might want to check out if you’re stuck as to where to look for good tech news sources. Send me suggestions on Slack, and I’ll update the list periodically.

Twitter

Podcasts

Newsletters

Other stuff

  • The Apple News app surfaces pretty good tech stories if you train it to do so

  1. And news you care about, too—this should be your practice for all topics important to you, not just tech↩