Ask HN: How do you keep up with new technologies?

[robertnn]

I'm just curious how people on HN keep up with new technology. There are a lot of new shiny things constantly so it is sometimes hard to filter through the noise. Do you read theses (?) or books, do you create small projects in the languages that you want to learn, or any other way? Do you just ignore new technologies and continue to write code as you've always done?

[jesusmichael]

I've been doing this a LONG time...

At first I used to read all the dev sites and attend conventions, but at some point you can only focus on so many things.

Now I only follow languages I can write in. I tried RoR a few years ago, when it was hot and found I could do everything I needed to do better, with Python, PHP and JS. So what do I need it for?

I read HN, Reddit, go to some meetups, wired and some blogs are good too. But I mostly just learn new stuff when I need to.

[robertnn]

Right. I haven't been doing this for too long so I'm worried that one day I'll only have skills that will no longer be in high demand, but I agree about the focus - it's better to focus on a few things and do them good instead of knowing little about a lot. It's easy to get distracted though..