Tech Geniuses Will Keep You Spinning (how to enjoy listening to tech podcasts)

I’m listening to the DotNet Rocks! Podcast while I’m writing this article. It is a fantastic podcast that you should listen to whenever you get a chance. They have great guests who share valuable information.

However, one thing struck me as I listened to the hosts & guest debate the value of microservices:

The Grass Is Always Greener

There is always a better technology to use for your project.

As A Developer With Less Experience

If you’re a developer with less experience you may listen to one podcast or another or read various tech articles and you hear a lot of opinions. Often, those opinions will oppose other ideas that you’ve held.

Best Technology Is Always The Thing You’re Currently Hearing About: Not!

As you’re reading those articles it can feel like the current thing is the most important thing in software development and that all your future projects must be built on that technology or architecture or programming language.

Leads To Feeling Like an Impostor

All of this can often lead to feeling like an impostor. This is just the nature of new technology arriving on the scene.

Resolving This Issue

Should you stop listening to podcasts and stop reading new tech articles? Certainly not.
However, what you should do is:

1. Listen with a critical ear - Podcasters & article writers are focusing in on a specific technology or topic so you can evaluate if it is right for you and your project.
2. Take what helps you and your project and drop the rest.
3. Keep in mind that this sparkly new technology you are hearing about is tomorrow’s legacy tech.
4. Keep in mind there are exceptions to every rule — this is especially true in the world of software. You may hear a podcaster absolutely deriding a technology you’ve used to build your working project. However, keep in mind that your actual working project is the important thing.
5. Trust yourself - Even if you’ve used older technology you can always iterate and rebuild.
6. Most podcasters and article writers aren’t really trying to prove that their ideas are the absolute perfect best anyways. They are just explaining a particular topic and concentrating on it so heavily that it can sound that way.

Keep these things in mind and you’ll enjoy listening to podcasts and reading new tech articles a whole lot more.

If you get a chance, check out the latest DotNet Rocks podcast. It’s a really great one. All there podcasts are great discussions where you’ll learn a lot.