Java, Microservices, other JVM languages… Programming, best practices, architecture… Libraries, frameworks, methodologies… I could go on for a while here. Being a passionate and up to date Software Developer is a challenge. How do you stay up to date with all this? I will let you on a well-known secret- use Twitter! Read on to find out what can Twitter help you with and how I use it to stay up to date.
Why is Twitter a good tool to keep yourself up to date?
There are many ways to stay current- reading books, reading blogs (hey, you are doing that now!), attending conferences and more. I am not suggesting you stop doing any of this. Instead, I am giving you one more, that works really well for me.
With Twitter, you get access to curated content. Curated in two ways. First- you chose who to follow, so if someone is constantly posting quality articles and information- you follow them. Second-you get to see which articles and info get the most likes and retweets. That usually correlates with relevance and the level of quality of the articles.
If you follow the right people, you will know what is hot in Java. You will see what technologies get talked about the most and what changes may be coming your way. This goes beyond Java as if you are interested in Kotlin, or Spring- you can follow experts in these areas as well.
Another thing that I like about Twitter is that it gets personal. Sometimes in a good way. On Twitter, you may find personal opinion and preferences from the key people in the industry. I think this is useful, as genuine excitement can really peak our interest, more than a dry line in a book.
Tweets, being quite small, make it easy to scan for relevant information. I like the fact that people make an effort to make their messages short and to the point. It makes it not much effort to read and decide if you are going to click that linked article.
With all these benefits, I think using Twitter for staying up to date with tech is a great idea. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t be writing about it!
Some say you get as much out of Twitter as you put in… I don’t agree! I think you get much more than you put in with Twitter, but some work is necessary in order for this to work for you. You need to follow the right people.
Who to follow?
If you are new to Twitter, it may be a bit daunting to start. I will give you a list of accounts that I find particularly interesting to follow. If I miss some that you already follow and think are great, please let me know in the comments- I may add them here.
Languages related
@Java – This is the official Twitter channel for Java and the source for Java news from the Java community. – Amazing source of news and articles related to Java development.
@Kotlin – Statically typed programming language targeting JVM, Android, JavaScript & Native / Sponsored and Developed by @JetBrains – Similar to the Java Twitter account, but about Kotlin. Get ready for the future!
Spring related
@Baeldung – Eugen – Author of http://restwithspring.com and http://learnspringsecurity.com , passionate about REST, Security, TDD and everything in between. – Creator of Baeldung.com – my favorite Java/Spring blog.
@starbuxman – Josh Long / Spring Dragon – Spring Advocate @Pivotal – One of the most recognized Spring speakers and advocates. A fascinating account to follow!
@MGrzejszczak – Open source contributor. Author of Mockito books and Applied Continous Delivery course @safari. Making Spring Cloud Contract / Sleuth / Pipelines @Pivotal – Plenty of articles and information from one of the Spring Cloud prolific developers and writers.
@springunidotcom – Laszlo Csontos – Sharing tutorials, examples and other resources with #Java devs about building #Microservices with #SpringBoot, #SpringCloud and other @SpringCentral projects – One of my favorite sources of Spring related news and articles. Great content curator!
@springcentral –Spring helps development teams everywhere build simple, portable, fast and flexible JVM-based systems and applications. – The main Spring account, for relevant news and articles.
@springcloud –Spring cloud news and articles.
News and Articles
@Dzone – DZone is one of the largest web communities and publishers of technical content about. – Interesting article on all programming related topic.
@InfoQ – Facilitating the spread of knowledge and innovation in professional software development. – Great selection of articles, similar to Dzone.
@KentBeck – Programmer, coach coach, singer/guitarist, peripatetic. Learning to be me. – One of the fathers of XP and the Agile movement.
Great authors, bloggers and influencers
@unclebobmartin – Software Craftsman – Author of many bestsellers and an influential blogger.
@spolsky – Joel Spolsky – CEO of Stack Overflow, co-founder of Fog Creek Software (Glitch, FogBugz), and creator of Trello. NYC gay techie – Who does not know Stack Overflow? Also, a legendary blogger.
@RealGeneKim – DevOps enthusiast. Coauthor: DevOps Handbook, The Phoenix Project & Accelerate. Tripwire founder, IT Ops/Security Researcher, Theory of Constraints Jonah. – If you want to know about DevOps, follow Gene!
@martinfowler – Programmer, Loud Mouth, ThoughtWorker – …also one of the most influential technical architects in the world.
@yporier – Yolande Poirier – Evangelize @Java Empower developers globally to successfully grow their projects & businesses. On the side, managing @javascript. All opinions are mine. – Runs @Java Twitter account and shares a lot of interesting content with a more personal angle.
@gayle – Founder/CEO of CareerCup. Ex-Google, Apple, Microsoft developer. Author of Cracking the Coding Interview, Cracking the PM Interview & Cracking the Tech Career. – If you want to nail your technical interview or get better at running them, follow Gayle!
@patkua – The best account to follow if you want to learn about leading teams and inspiring people. A goldmine of content.
@simona_cotin – Cloud Developer Advocate @Microsoft – It is worth knowing what Microsoft is up to in the cloud. Simona will keep you up to date on that!
@samnewman – Independent techie consultant focusing on Microservices, cloud and CD. Wrote Building Microservices. May contain cricket, NRL and board game references. – Author of Building Microservices, an authority on microservices architecture.
@trisha_gee – Coder/blogger/speaker, working for JetBrains. Human. More or less. – Great content, JetBrains, Java, development related.
@arungupta – Runner, Author, Father, Husband, Java Champion, J1 Rockstar, JUG Leader, Minecraft, Docker Captain, Devoxx4Kids, DevRel, Work for @awscloud – not many people as passionate about Java and AWS as Arun is that’s for sure!
Funny
@iamdeveloper – The Vista of Twitter accounts – A hilarious parody account to follow!
Follow me…
@e4developer – Husband and a father. Lead developer @Scott_Logic. Microservices evangelist – If you like my articles, you should follow me on Twitter. I share other great content I find as well.
But what about this other technology/influencer?…
Just follow them! That’s the beauty of Twitter, you can curate your content!
Also- if I missed someone that you think is absolutely amazing and should be on that list- please let me know in the comments. I am always looking for new people to follow and I am sure that other readers will appreciate it as well!
Do I have to start tweeting?
One thing that seems to confuse people is the question of whether they should start tweeting as well. The answer is simple- only if you want to!
Some people retweet and like interesting content as a way to ‘save it’ for themselves. Other ask questions from the people that actually wrote the articles. The chance to ask a question directly to the author of an article is pretty great!
I started using Twitter fairly passively, but this day I interact with others daily. Find what works for you!
Summary
Twitter is great to stay up to date and learn more about programming. Beyond that, it can be a place to meet like-minded people and find out about conferences.
I really recommend you give it a go if you are not doing that already. If you are- spread the word and let’s get our colleagues to use the platform and join in the hashtag fueled experience.