People Worth Following
Most of my daily/weekly reading list is summed up in this list of folks.
2024
- B.H. Belvadi’s blog is a rabbit hole of great work. His blog post on accessibility is going to become a keystone of my philosophy moving forward.
- David Bushell is more of an occasional read for me, but I’ve never regretted spending time with one of his posts.
- Baldur Bjarnason is an Icelandic web developer with careful blog posts about the web and excellent link roundups (a lot of my Blorps come from here). I’m not “enough” of a developer to appreciate some of what he writes about but I appreciate a lot of his writing all the same.
- Erik Kennedy β while I’ve never taken his Learn UI Design course, I’ve been subscribed to the blog for years and I appreciate the systematic way he approaches design.
2023
- Ted Gioia is a jazz historian that makes a ton of great writing available on his Substack for free. Highly recommended, and has tipped me off to at least a couple great jazz CDs.
- Noah Smith is another great writer on Substack, and writes about the intersection of technology and culture, as well as some economic stories.
- Brian Feldman (another substack newsletter) has sporadic postings about “the internet and computers or whatever.”
- KC Soccer Journal: excellent independent MLS (Sporting) and NWSL (Current) coverage. The current writers are refugees from SBnation’s decision to shut down content websites that weren’t making enough money.
2022
- Chris Martin‘s excellent Terms of Service newsletter is a weekly read of mine. Incisive comments on how social media is affecting our culture for better and worse. All of his books are worth a read as well.
- Brett McCracken: timely and thoughtful reflections on how to build community in a digital age.
- Charlie Theel writes some of the most earnest and unhinged board game reviews out there.
- Matias Ventura is “the” WordPress designer, author of Twenty Eleven. His blog hasn’t been updated in a while, but some great reads are there all the same.
- Zach Leatherman is a static site guru and has become an indispensible resource as Mere has transitioned away from WordPress. The sparklines on my archive page are cribbed from him!
2021 and earlier
- Brad Frost is someone I’ve been following for almost a decade. Excellent designer and knows more about UI/UX than I ever will.
- Chris Coyier is a must-follow for anyone working on WordPress in this decade. Spoiler alert: I don’t think there are going to be many WordPress developers left at this rate.
- Bill Erickson is a must-read for any developers trying to make a go of Gutenberg in earnest.
- Dan Thurot is the top board gaming reviewer in text form. One of the few attempting actual board game criticism.
- Trent Walton has been writing informative posts about responsive web design since it was in its infancy. Every post on his blog is a must-read.
- Frank Chimero‘s “What Screens Want” is still one of my guiding north stars of web design even a decade later. Careful, creative, web design writing.
- Ethan Marcotte pretty much invented responsive web design. His Book Apart volume is still essential reading for any web developer.