Best tip to keep up with tech
Published at: 2025-11-22You do not need to study endlessly every day to keep up with tech.
There is really no point in keeping up with the latest onslaught of frameworks and AI news that comes out basically daily.
What is important is the following:
- Master the basics of computer science and development; everything is just someone's interpretation of this.
- Pick an area that you find interesting and dedicate 5 hours a week or so to studying that in depth.
- If you like algorithms and data structures, focus on that. If you like databases and optimizing queries, then focus on learning about those topics.
- Expose yourself to various topics via meetup talks or just reading blog posts in general.
- You do not have to master or understand the topics in depth. Just knowing about them can get you pretty far.
That last one is really important for everyone in the middle of their careers, in my opinion. Most of the time, what really matters (outside of being an expert in an area) is being able to find the right solution, which means you have to know where to look.
A few personal examples:
- A long, long time ago, I attended a talk about the Node.js event loop. Years later, I found myself running into a production issue that stemmed from the way the event loop worked. Being able to quickly connect the scenarios presented in the talk to what was happening with our service quickly pointed me to the docs I needed to refresh myself and explain to the rest of the team.
- Countless blog posts I've read about database performance issues that I have been able to quickly reference when dealing with a load issue or when I am optimizing a query. Most of the time, it's not that I remember the exact thing I need to address, but it gives me a starting point.