![\"information](\"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/drinking-from-a-firehose-300x198.jpg\" "\\"drinking-from-a-firehose-300x198\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nSo many sources of data<\/h2>\n
There are so many sources of information coming at us every day:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Podcasts<\/li>\n
- Blogs<\/li>\n
- Trade magazines<\/li>\n
- Books<\/li>\n
- Technology news<\/li>\n
- Software and tool updates<\/li>\n
- User group meetings<\/li>\n
- Tweets<\/li>\n
- Conferences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Sometimes sitting at my desk is like having my eye-lids taped open and being forced to watch a Nazi brain washing video. \u00a0“You will kill the prime minister of Malaysia!”<\/p>\n
With all the sources of information coming in all the time, there is really no way to keep up on all of it, but that is okay. \u00a0At least I keep telling myself it is. \u00a0What you really need is a good strategy for dealing with all of this. \u00a0I’ll be perfectly honest here. \u00a0I don’t have one, but I have a few tips that I have been using and just maybe it can help you.<\/p>\n
Pick your priorities<\/h2>\n
You have to know what is important to you in order to make decisions about what content to consume. \u00a0If you can’t pick it all, you want to make sure you are getting the best and most important information.<\/p>\n
As a developer who has been straddling the line between Java and C# for the past 2 years or so, I have found that my number of information sources is close to double the number of sources for a purely Java or C# developer. \u00a0If you are Ruby\/.NET or Scala\/Java or any other kind of dual casting class, you’ll have the same problem.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there is a simple solution, as far as priorities go, to this problem. \u00a0Prioritize language agnostic sources of information as the highest. \u00a0What I mean by this is, instead of reading a book about C#’s or Silverlight, read a book about writing better code, or being a better programmer, or design patterns. \u00a0You want to prioritize those kinds of things near the top of your list because those skills have a long shelf-life. \u00a0Learning better ways to express yourself in code or design patterns is likely to benefit you regardless of the technology or environment.<\/strong> Those kinds of things go to the top of my list.<\/p>\n
Next, I try to pick as a priority the technologies that I am currently working on right now. \u00a0 If I am working on building a DSL using ANTLR then I want to read things about ANTLR. \u00a0If I am working on an ASP.NET MVC application, then I want to be picking blogs about ASP.NET MVC. \u00a0The idea here is that I am learning about something that:<\/p>\n
- \n
- I know has value because I am using it right now<\/li>\n
- I can immediately benefit from as it will help me do my job<\/li>\n
- Is interesting to me because it is about what I am doing<\/li>\n
- Doesn’t lead me in a different direction because I want to use what I just learned<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Finally, I try and pick as priorities things that I am interested in. \u00a0Perhaps something that I would like to learn about or do as a hobby. \u00a0For example, I don’t get paid to write iPad or Android applications, but I am really interested in both of those technologies and I might like to someday write a little app as a side project. \u00a0Having a bit of diversity into some technology you’re not really working in for a living but you are interested in can be good. \u00a0It can prevent you from being too narrowly focused and becoming a technology or language bigot.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Pick your data sources<\/strong><\/h2>\n
I absolutely hate cable TV. \u00a0I haven’t had cable TV for about 7 years now. \u00a0Why? \u00a0It is a lousy data source. \u00a0The signal to noise ratio on cable TV is horrible. \u00a0You sit down and almost end up spending as much time watching commercials\u00a0as you do shows. \u00a0Plus, when you are flipping through channels you end up losing hours watching stuff you are not really interested in just because it is on.<\/p>\n
Instead, I use a service like Hulu or PlayOn to only watch the shows I want when I want with almost no commercials. \u00a0(And it is free.)<\/p>\n
My point here is that you have to be picky with your information sources. \u00a0You want to pick the information you want to get, and you want to pick sources that have high signal to noise ratios.<\/p>\n
To do this takes some effort and some time. \u00a0The best way I have found to do this is to figure out strategies for determining quality.<\/p>\n
- \n
- For books, look at reviews and recommendations, don’t pick up a book because the cover looks cool. \u00a0Make sure you’re not going to waste your time reading something that is not good material.<\/li>\n
- For blogs, put them in your RSS reader, read all the ones in your reader. \u00a0Over time, the ones that you feel like you don’t want to read, remove from your reader, or put into a folder for checking every once in a while, instead of your must read list. \u00a0You can scan the lists every couple of days or so and read just the things that interest you.<\/li>\n
- For podcasts, recognize the difference between entertainment and information. \u00a0It is okay to listen to podcasts just because they are entertaining but make sure you know which ones you consider good information and which ones you consider good entertainment. \u00a0The best ones are the ones that combine both.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Keep your lists active. \u00a0Add things, remove them, always optimize it. \u00a0Sometimes information sources that were good go sour. \u00a0Sometimes new good ones pop up. \u00a0Don’t get stuck in a rut reading stuff that doesn’t benefit you anymore. \u00a0Your own growth will change what is valuable to you also.<\/p>\n
Figure out your schedule<\/h2>\n
You have to know how much time you are going to dedicate to the\u00a0fire-hose\u00a0drinking. \u00a0If you have more things than you have time you end up becoming stressed out. \u00a0Your reading list backs up and becomes a pile of work instead of something you enjoy doing. \u00a0Don’t let that happen, make sure you have a plan and stick to the plan.<\/p>\n
You need to figure out when you are going to do particular things and about how much time you have. \u00a0This will force you to set some limits on the number of things that you allow in each day.<\/p>\n
For example, I know that I will spend about 45 minutes to an hour each morning catching up on blogs and things in my RSS reader. \u00a0I know that I have a commute each day which allows me about 40 minutes each day to listen to podcasts. \u00a0I know that during the day I have about another hour of doing something mindless where I can probably listen to a podcast while I work. \u00a0I know that I want to dedicate about 30 minutes each day to reading a book.<\/p>\n
Based on my schedule I know that I can’t really have more than about 8-10 things in my RSS reader to read each day. \u00a0I have to pick about 3-4 podcasts to subscribe to (depending on frequency of updates and length of episodes) and I can pick a book off my reading list on average about a month.<\/p>\n
Use your knowledge of what your schedule is to put hard limits on the amount of information you allow into your world on a subscription basis. \u00a0Remember also that things like tweets are going to show up at different points during the day and leave some time for discovering new sources from recommendations.<\/p>\n
Don’t skim<\/h2>\n
Do you like wasting hours of time with nothing to show for it? \u00a0Avoid the temptation to mark things off your RSS reader or your book list just for the sake of marking them off. \u00a0If you are going to subscribe to an RSS feed, read the content. \u00a0Read the whole thing. \u00a0Don’t skim through it and not gain the information. \u00a0The same goes for books and podcasts.<\/p>\n
If you feel like you don’t want to read it and you want to skim it instead, then simply remove it from your subscription, close the book and move on or stop the podcast. \u00a0Don’t waste your time, and don’t do things just to check them off a list.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Hopefully my advice has been of some help to you. \u00a0I am still trying to figure how to do all these things myself, and I still do feel overwhelmed at times, but I do feel like I am getting better at it. \u00a0What do you think? \u00a0What kind of strategies do you employ to “drink from the fire-hose”?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a developer trying to stay sharp and keep up on the latest technology, frameworks, and best practices, you probably find that you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that is coming in every day. I often feel like I am swimming hard in a river against the current, sometimes making ground, sometimes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91,264,5895],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","category-learning","category-self-improvement"],"yoast_head":"\n
Drinking From the Information Firehose<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A list of strategies to handle the overwhelming amount of information and information sources in the software development industry.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/products\/careerguide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drinking From the Information Firehose\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A list of strategies to handle the overwhelming amount of information and information sources in the software development industry.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/products\/careerguide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Simple Programmer\" \/>\n<meta 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