The best minds in tech love to stay current with the newest developments and innovations. So they often read books, listen to podcasts, subscribe to magazines, and visit tech blogs. But there's another way that's quicker and easier to get instant updates: it's by following the most popular tech influencers.
These people are CEOs, co-founders, creators, writers, and speakers. They love giving back to the community by sharing their knowledge with the rest of the world. Whether you're an ambitious developer who wants to advance or an entrepreneur who wants to compete in the startup world, here are the top tech influencers you should start following online.
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PHP/Laravel
Marcel Pociot
Marcel has been around the PHP/Laravel community for a few years. He's now the founder of Beyond Code, a web development company. He calls himself an open-source lover and has created more than 100 packages for the PHP and Laravel ecosystem. His packages have been downloaded more than 14 million times.
Marcel shares his knowledge and experience with all things PHP and Laravel by giving conference talks and creating video courses. He's been the key speaker at some of the most notable conferences in the PHP/Laravel community, including Laracon US, Laracon Europe, and the International PHP Conference. He's recorded several paid video courses, as well as two free tutorials for Laracasts.
Adam Wathan
Adam is a full-stack developer, entrepreneur, and writer. He's also a mentor, 100% invested in helping other developers build better software.
Over the years, Adam has published a few dozen articles and has spoken to many conferences. Most of his talks are narrated live-coding sessions that you can watch on his YouTube channel.
He's also the writer of a book Refactoring UI that contains everything you need to know to start producing better designs.
Adam is the host of a tech podcast Fullstack Radio. Every episode, he sits down with a guest to discuss building great software products. He and his guests dive into issues that are rooted in day-to-day developer lives, from user experience and product design to system administration.
Taylor Otwell
Taylor Otwell is a software engineer and the designer behind Laravel. He's also the creator of Laravel's surrounding ecosystem, including Laravel Forge, Envoyer, Spark, Nova, and Vapo. He's a well-known face in the PHP/Laravel universe and has been helping developers design applications using the Laravel framework.
He's a frequent key speaker at conferences, including Laracon EU and Laracon US.
Taylor has a weekly podcast where he gives you a 5-10 min update on what's happening with Laravel. He's the writer of a book he published in 2013 called Laravel: From Apprentice To Artisan, which is a guide to advanced application development with Laravel 4.
JavaScript
Wes Bos
Wes Bos is a full-stack web developer that spends most of his time working with JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3. What he also loves is sharing his knowledge and experience with the tech community. You can often see him speaking at events, talking about everything from ServerSide JavaScript to front end development.
When he's not speaking at conferences, he's teaching at Juno where he's the lead instructor. What's more, he's also involved with the Ladies Learning Code, where he teaches the WordPress classes.
He's created a range of tech videos, some of which are paid and some of which are free. You can subscribe to his youtube channel and watch tutorials that revolve around web dev, JavaScript, and CSS Grid.
Dan Abramov
Dan Abramov is an influential voice for React in the JavaScript realm. He's the creator of Redux, together with Andrew Clark. He is also the co-author of the Create React App.
When he's not coding, he's usually writing about it. He has his own personal blog, Overreacted where he blogs about a range of tech topics.
Dan has created a few courses and lessons that talk about getting started with Redux and building React applications with idiomatic Redux.
You can also find him speaking on a number of podcasts where he discusses all things React.
Addy Osmani
Addy Osmani is an engineering manager at Google working on Chrome. With over 200K followers on Twitter, he's a recognizable face in the tech industry.
His contributions to the tech community are extensive. He's written books like Learning JavaScript Design Patterns, Backbone.js Apps, and Essential Image Optimization. He also writes tech articles that can be found on his Medium channel.
Addy is a fan of open-source and has contributed to a range of projects, such as Lighthouse, Workbox, Quicklink, Guess.js, and Yeoman.
You'll also find him on YouTube, where he has his own channel. He posts videos of his keynote speeches, panel talks, and tutorials.
Ruby on Rails
David Heinemeier Hansson
David is the creator of Ruby on Rails and the founder & CTO at Basecamp.
He's the co-author of several books, including Agile Web Development, Getting Real, Rework, Remote, and It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work with Jason Fried.
Blogging is another of his pastimes. He's been actively writing on the blog Signal v Noise where he shares his experience from the startup world.
If you're a fan of podcasts, you'll be happy to hear that David is the co-host of a popular podcast Rework together with Jason Fried. Their episodes include giving tips for successful entrepreneurship, including embracing bootstrapping, staying small, and growing slow. The podcast features world-class guests who cover a range of topics that are aimed at helping entrepreneurs build their business.
Wordpress
Matt Mullenweg
Matt Mullenweg is the CEO of Automatic, the company behind WordPress, Jetpack, and WooCommerce.
Although his main focus is Automattic, Matt also advises and invests in startups through his company Audrey Capital.
He's a supporter of a number of charities and organizations, including Archive.org, Alaska Wilderness League, Apache Foundation, and the Innocence Project.
You can often see him speaking at WordPress events and WordCamps. He's written a number of articles about his work over the years and has been a guest at many podcast interviews.
Android
Donn Felker
He's an Android developer, a Microsoft ASP Insider, and the founder of Agilevent, an agile and mobile software development company. He's also the author of Android Application Development For Dummies and Android Tablet Application Development for Dummies.
His area of expertise includes writing a range of blog topics that interest him. You can find his content on Medium.
Donn is the co-host of a tech podcast Fragmented. Together with Kaushik Gopal, they give listeners actional advice on how to improve as an Android developer. Some of their episodes feature the best people in Android development who talk about the best tools and tactics.
Final Word
Becoming a well-rounded developer or a successful entrepreneur requires ongoing learning and development. It goes beyond your working hours. It's a never-ending dedication to pick up new things, desire to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, and a strong mindset to perfect your skills.
Following the best tech influencers in the industry is one way of becoming a better version of yourself. These are people who have vast experience in coding, solving problems, and growing a startup company. With their tips and advice, you can stay at the top of your game and enjoy an eventful life-long career.
