How do you learn best? One of the most effective methods is to listen to more experienced people. Pay attention to what they are talking about, how they talk about certain topics and what they are doing to improve themselves. It’s part of our job to learn from them.
When I started my journey over 10 years ago, I couldn’t learn enough. There were just too many exciting topics out there. I didn’t have any more experienced developers in my friend circles so I felt I needed to go other ways to get this kind of input.
Around that time, podcasts became more popular. These were my rescue! Whenever I was commuting to / from school I was listening to them, or while doing chores, driving in the car. Basically whenever I couldn’t use a screen I listened to podcasts.
If you think “But I don’t understand what they are talking about, therefore why should I listen to it” right now, keep reading.
I know how this feels. And my answer is: Do it anyways! Initially, a lot of topics, words and concepts won’t make any sense. It’s like learning about solutions for problems you don’t have (yet). For example, I learned about version control through podcasts and I was just 🤷♂️ why I would need something like that. Coming back to it a few months later, I at least understood that eventually I should know how to use it and start using it.
In my first job, this background knowledge allowed me to get started quickly with my first version control tool. I still had to learn the commands but I already knew the concepts behind it and why I need to use it.
By listening to tech podcasts, you build up a lot of background knowledge that will start to make sense and form a (more) complete picture eventually.
It’s an excellent way to build up knowledge during the day, while you might be doing other things.
Here’s my list of favorite tech podcasts:
| CodeNewbie | https://www.codenewbie.org/ |
| Changelog Podcast | https://changelog.com/ |
| To Be Continuous | https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/to-be-continuous/ |
| Command Line Heroes | https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes |
| CoRecursive | https://corecursive.com/ |
What podcasts are you listening to? Let me know in the comments!
