We all know that technology moves fast. That makes it a full-time job just to keep up with the latest technological advances. Fortunately, there are many ways for us to make keeping up a part of the normal routine. These avenues are easy to utilize and are an excellent way to save yourself time.
Trade Magazines and Blog Sites
I have mentioned these before. However, you can get a wealth of information by perusing magazines, blogs, and podcasts. The best part about these sources of information is that you can skim or pay partial attention to them while still getting a benefit. This happens to be a reason why articles that are in list form (top three this, never do these five things, etc.) are so popular. They provide a way to skim the content in seconds and then dive deeper if something is new to you.
Even when you do not have the time to immediately dig into technological advances, you can at least mentally bookmark it. This is a perfect way to prioritize your research. You can listen for new topics, tools, or solutions and pursue them when the “buzz” around them grows to a certain level. This allows you to avoid wasting time on fads and other things that fade quickly.
Tutorials and Training on Technological Advances
When I was starting my career, we used these things called books. There are still technical books out there. However, the learning sites like O’Reilly, Lynda.com, and Packtpub.com make it incredibly easy to find an online learning option. These sites provide current content on all of the technological advances or trends and make it easy to consume the same. We have talked about training from your employer as valuable, but you can control your destiny easy enough.
Much like magazine and blog articles, these tutorial sites can be a great value even if you only browse the material. A regular visit to check out the latest new releases is an excellent way to see what is being used and also how it is being implemented. I must warn you that there are plenty of rabbit-holes to go down when taking this action. Anyone with interest in technology can lose hours learning more about the latest releases. The content is just that useful and entertaining.
The upside of regularly checking out these sort of sites is that you will see where your skills are lacking or getting rusty. Of course, the content will be a little behind the curve as it takes time to write on the latest technological advances. On the other hand, that delay is worthwhile. The content in a book or tutorial is more likely to be stable and “baked in” than blog articles that are trying to break new information to you.
