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Jacob Evans
Jacob Evans

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Should you listen to Podcasts?

What's the lowdown

So... The last few posts I did were about resources and where you can find them. Something I recently noticed at work is that some of my co-workers have never listened to Podcasts related to our career field or the technologies they use. Is there anything wrong with that... Well no, of course not you can do whatever you want with your free time, some people prefer music; I rather listen to podcasts on hackers or technologies.

Ok so what's the point...?

The point is there's a benefit to listening to podcasts, definitely not necessary to listen as often as me, but just occasionally will suffice.

I definitely think there are a few bullet points.
TL;DR Yes.

  • It keeps your mind in a particular headspace:
    This can be a double edge sword for some, maybe you want to get your mind off work-related things then I suggest finding podcasts that are more entertaining anyway. (Personally, I listen to the hacker ones for pleasure, I am not a security researcher or anything, I just love the stories.)

  • Keeps you up to date with trends and technologies in the industry:
    If you are working in the industry and want to stay on the pulse of what is going on with conferences, changes in trends, maybe new tech stacks (what's going on with WASM, React, Vue, etc...?)

  • Interested in something new (I am checking out Golang):
    If you want to maybe do more than read a few articles and documentation on something before diving into it and committing quite a bit of effort implementing. Podcasts on that particular tech can really give you insight on going all in or not. I start listening to Changelogs Go section, really helped me decide the benefit was worth the headache of learning a C like a language which for a person only ever used JavaScript and dabbled with Python seems like a bit of a task.

  • They can be informative for learning, eureka moments can happen:
    It doesn't happen nearly as often as it does with tutorials because that is what they are designed for, however, while listening to podcasts occasionally their discussions will be technical and can trigger similar eureka moments.

  • They are free, handsfree, simple to use resources:
    There isn't much else to that bullet, truly it's just an easy resource to consume.

Podcasts

Top comments (12)

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steelwolf180 profile image
Max Ong Zong Bao

I think it can't be stress enough is that you get different viewpoints when your listening to podcast.

As it helps you in forming different mental model to tackle problems.

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jacobmgevans profile image
Jacob Evans

I couldn't agree more :)

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matsaleh profile image
Matthew Walker

Absolutely a great way to fill in gaps and keep up with tech developments. Also really like the headspace point. Some of my favorites are:

Software Engineering Daily - softwareengineeringdaily.com/feed/...

This Week in Machine Learning & AI Podcast - feeds.feedburner.com/twimlai

The Changelog - feeds.5by5.tv/changelog

Hanselminutes - feeds.feedburner.com/Hanselminutes...

CppCast - cppcast.libsyn.com/rss

JavaScript Jabber - feeds.feedwrench.com/JavaScriptJab...

.NET Rocks! - pwop.com/feed.aspx?show=dotnetrock...

Coding Blocks | Software and Web Programming / Security / Best Practices / Microsoft .NET - feeds.podtrac.com/c8yBGHRafqhz

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jacobmgevans profile image
Jacob Evans

I will certainly check these out! Awesome list, thank you :)

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theianjones profile image
Ian Jones

egghead.io's podcasts are great too!

egghead.io/podcasts

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jacobmgevans profile image
Jacob Evans

ahahaha! You don't think you may possibly be a tiny bit biased 😂😂

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theianjones profile image
Ian Jones

Haha very likely ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I've listened to almost all of them though and they are great conversations.

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jacobmgevans profile image
Jacob Evans • Edited

I will definitely be checking them out. I also embarrassingly have to admit I am only recently taking full advantage of egghead.io. I had known and heard about it (from the podcasts I listen too) and just kept saying oh I will check that out for months and months... I finally did a month ago and my mind was blown it is a great resource full of other resources!

I think one of my next articles should be about this lmao 😂😂

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lankydandev profile image
Dan Newton

Going to answer using your tldr. Yes. 😂😂😂

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jacobmgevans profile image
Jacob Evans

Glad that was helpful lmao 😂

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dusan100janovic profile image
DuĆĄan

Will give it a try. Thank you for this article.

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jacobmgevans profile image
Jacob Evans

Always happy to help, I am certainly happy you found the article useful.