Blogs, Internet Mags, Websites Always Ahead of the Technology Curve

April 4, 2016 2:08 PM

A recent interview question threw me a bit for a loop (I'm an Interactive Project Manager) and before the next interview I want to have a better answer. The question was "How do you stay on top of all of the rapid advances in technology". So my question is, "What are the best blogs, internet magazines, message boards or websites that are always focused on the cutting edge and are ahead of their peers in recognizing coming trends in interactive/digital/mobile technology?"

I only have a few days to actually read through these sites, but I want to be able to name drop them and sound like I'm in the loop and then talk about something I've seen on one of them that I thought really inspiring or prescient or just plain cool.

posted by spicynuts to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Best answer: This Quora thread may be of interest to you.
posted by Hermione Granger at 2:21 PM on April 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: That is perfect, Hermione.
posted by spicynuts at 2:41 PM on April 4, 2016

I think it's really important to follow highly relevant blogs and websites, and not more generic ones like mashable.

Websites that I personally prefer are MOZ.com, emarketer, SEO Journal, Search Engine Watch, Ad Age, ClickZ, Digiday.

These are more SEO and programmatic marketing-focused, but measuring results, mobile etc is very important these days.
posted by My Dad at 2:49 PM on April 4, 2016

Name-dropping sites is one thing. Being able to tell a true story about how it helps you is better for an interview. So, think hard about the real anecdotes you have in your back pocket.

"I've always been one of those types of people that loves reading Ars Technica -- yeah, I know, I'm a nerd, sue me -- but it comes in handy. This one time, I faced a problem, and funny enough, I had just read something that day that helped me solve the problem. I looked like a genius, but really, I just read a lot."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:24 PM on April 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Yeah, that's the problem I have is that I don't really have an anecdote like that because I don't really read these blogs...I rely on my creative and development teams to be the thought leaders in technology. Which I know is bad, but by the time I'm done running Scrum stand ups and wireframe/UX reviews, and cataloging feedback, and resolving issues and updating schedules and burn charts and talking to clients about 'oh we want to move that button to the upper left' and writing my stories for the next sprint and filling out status reports for my boss, when I get home I don't want to see anything fucking internet related at all. I need to make it part of my morning routine before I delve into actual work - like set aside 30 minutes each morning for research.
posted by spicynuts at 4:04 PM on April 4, 2016

There is so much to keep up with that I've resorted to aggregators, primarily Hacker News and Twitter. I trust the network at HN and my carefully cultivated list of people I'm following to bubble up the important stuff so that I don't miss it trying to read everything.
posted by COD at 4:45 PM on April 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

What about newsletters? There's Versioning for general web/tech/UX/product updates, and all the Cooper Press ones for language-specific tech. Even a skim of those daily will get you to conversation-level knowledge of tech news. If you have trouble setting time aside for blogs, email might be easier to fit in your day.
posted by third word on a random page at 8:16 PM on April 4, 2016

Seconding Hacker News, somewhat for the story aggregation but mostly for the discussion surrounding the stories. There's lots of intelligent commentary without (usually) falling into Reddit-like trash.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:52 PM on April 4, 2016

Follow the right people on Twitter?
posted by BungaDunga at 8:58 PM on April 4, 2016