Web whetstones

How do you stay sharp as a web developer and/or designer?

I’ll share my advice below. I’m also looking for front-end folk to advise me too. What are your whetstones? That is to say: sources of news and knowledge to level up professionally. Does that metaphor work? We’re sharpening our minds, and I suppose the web too with our minds… are minds the whetstone here?

Moving swiftly on, in rough order of preference:

RSS feeds

People love to declare “RSS is dead” because they’ve chosen the likes of Google to gate-keep their web access. Interesting choice, but RSS remains alive and well.

When I discover a new blog and like what I read, I’ll subscribe. There’s a good chance that person will write something useful again one day! Funny how that works. I don’t flood my reader with big sites that exist to generate content. I collect personal blogs that may only post once a year. That’s still plenty of unique insights as the list grows.

I won’t share my list because I feel for RSS to work you have to curate it yourself.

Podcasts

Shop Talk Show has been number one forever. Syntax remains a decent second if you’re deft with the fast-forward button (it’s a little ‘sloppy’ these days.) Igalia Chats is packed with wisdom. For a Better Web is Bruce Lawson in your ears. Wonders of Web Weaving from James is new and hopefully a regular listen.

I’ve unsubscribed from too many podcasts that pivoted to AI servitude which is disheartening. I’m not adverse to such discussion but the level of mindless platitudes and gigglefests about what their wacky chat boxes said ain’t my cup of tea.

Mastodon and Bluesky is where I follow folk in the web industry. Socials can be a great whetstone if you manage your follow list carefully. Everyone uses these platforms for different reasons which can be difficult to balance. Personally I stick to shop talk and mute politics for example. I follow individuals and rarely organisations to avoid “brand engagement”.

Newsletters

Email newsletters are useful to catch stuff I’ve missed. Many exist in RSS form too. My favourites are typically link dumps with a side of commentary.

Current favourites:

Sidebar still has the odd gem if I care to sift through the “AI” links.

Newsletters are a declining category for me. Perhaps because I keep getting unsubscribed by those with failed tracking pixels. Email costs money to send so I’ll accept my loss.

Toxic forums

Lobste.rs, Hacker News, Reddit (e.g. web dev, experienced devs, frontend etc). Does dev.to have any humans left? These forums are a good source of links — if you can filter the bot spam and avoid the cesspit of comments. Toxicity spreads and it’s all too easy to get dragged in. Sometimes you just have to let people be wrong on the internet.

Meet-ups

I’ve heard these still happen! I only leave my house now to scavenge for essentials so I don’t have much to say. Clearleft events are guaranteed value if you’re in the UK. Some conferences have online tickets but I find the in-person socialising to be the main benefit.

Bookmarks

Everything listed above is (or has) a website. I’m poor at organising and utilising bookmarks. I’ll manually visit bigger blogs like CSS-Tricks and Smashing Magazine once a month to see if anything interests me. I bookmark a handful of YouTube channels like Kevin Powell because I have no Google account to “smash that subscribe button”. YouTube isn’t my thing though. I have an allergic reaction to algorithm driven content.

Edit: I’ve been reminded that YouTube has RSS feeds. Personally too noisy for my RSS use but a great tip to remember!

Discord

I don’t use Discord but I hear it get promoted often. Are these communities lively or are they a ghost town? That’s my problem with Discord. It’s a blackhole for information; antithetical to an open web! Am I missing out? Not sure I care.

For no particular reason I’ll end with this quote from Seth Rogen.

“I don’t understand what it’s supposed to do. Every time I see a video on Instagram that’s like, ‘Hollywood is cooked,’ what follows is, like, the most stupid dog shit I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said. “And if your instinct is to use AI and not go through that process, you shouldn’t be a writer, because then you’re not writing.”
Seth Rogen Says If “Your Instinct Is to Use AI” to Write Scripts, “You Shouldn’t Be a Writer” - The Hollywood Reporter

P.S. no more blog posts until June. I’m due a holiday!

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