My Favorite RSS Feeds
RSS, I love you. I never stopped loving you. When Google Reader up and left, I dug in my heels for you. And now it’s time for me to share that love with others.
While not comprehensive, I wanted to make a list of some of my favorite RSS feeds. If you don’t see a particular feed on here, it’s not because I don’t subscribe to it or love it.
Also, if you have an RSS feed you think I should read, even if it’s your own, ping me on twitter or email me (my email’s on my homepage).
Perennial Favorites
Ok, so let me start with my favorites. These are feeds I’ve subscribed to for a long time. It’s content that I don’t think ever gets old, content and writing that has survived the test of time. If you subscribe to anything I recommend, it should be one of these.
- Rough Type by Nicholas Carr
- roughtype.com/?feed=rss2
- I’ve been reading Nicholas Carr’s stuff for years. He’s a great writer and critical thinker around technology and its culture. His feed has been rather empty as of late, but his blog’s archives are exhaustive. He’s also written a number of books, all of which I’ve read and would whole-heartedly recommend.
- Jeremy Keith, a.k.a adactio
- adactio.com/journal/rss
- I mean, it’s Jeremy, how can you not? He has a number of feeds and you can selectively follow whichever ones you want. I’ve been following his journal for years and it has profoundly shaped my own views on building for the web.
- 24 Way
- feeds.feedburner.com/24ways
- Touted as “the advent calendar for web geeks”, this feed will only arrive with content to your reader come December. If you’re like me, you probably already indulge in too many goodies come December, but this is one more you should take in.
- The Verge: Paul Miller Offline
- theverge.com/rss/stream/2771566
- This is an old feed that doesn't get new content anymore. But back when Paul was writing, I waited with great anticipation for every new addition to his series “Offline”. If you haven’t read it, it's a classic read.
- Trent Walton
- trentwalton.com/feed.xml
- For whatever reason, I feel like Trent hasn’t posted as much as he used to. But when he does, it’s gold. (Trent is of Paravel fame.)
- cap watkins
- This feed seems to have disappeared but I think will be back up shortly. Cap always had great writing in the design space. I even wrote about some of it once.
- Jen Dary via Plucky
- beplucky.com/feed/
- Jen is amazing. She’s a world-class consultant on “adult development in the workspace”. Whether you’re a manager or not, you should follow her writing. It won’t just improve your career, it’ll make you a better human. The only thing better than Jen’s writing is Jen herself.
- Harry Roberts via CSS Wizardry
- feeds.feedburner.com/csswizardry
- Personally, I view Harry as one of the leading thinkers/practitioners in the CSS space. His articles are always impeccable. I always learn something from them, whether it’s practical tips or ideological mind shifts for building a better web.
- Dave Rupert
- daverupert.com/atom.xml
- Also of Paravel fame (geez, am I just plugging them now? I guess so, they’re great), Dave has a lot of good, critical, introspective writing about the what and why of building things for the web. I like his “well I was doing X and it made me think, ‘why Dave?’ and I started to think about Y...” style. Plus, he always adds a pinch of his own unique Dave/Dad humor into his writing, which I appreciate.
- Frank Chimero
- frankchimero.com/feed.xml
- Frank is just a genius. He has some of the most influential thinking I’ve ever read on the discipline of web design. You should, without a doubt, follow him if you’re not already.
- iA
- ia.net/feed/rss2
- This feed is a mix of a lot of things: design, philosophy, and practical tips for using iA Writer (my favorite writing app for Mac). Honestly, I’m not sure if the author of the posts is Oliver or a mix of voices from other iA employees, but I enjoy the strong opinions.
- Maciej Cegłowski via Idle Words
- idlewords.com/index.xml
- Another mixed bag of writing, you’ll find politics, travel, and web topics mixed into Maciej’s writing. But I promise, none of it will ever be boring. And the web-related stuff, I think, will resonate profoundly with you.
- Tyler Gaw
- tylergaw.com/rss.xml
- I’ve been following Tyler for years, ever since I first met him as a fellow employee at Arc90 when he was working on Readability. I find his style of writing—and design—fresh, unique, and approachable.
Current Favorites
This is a list of blogs I’ve been following rather recently. If they keep it up, perhaps they'll end up on my “perennial favorites” one day.
- Daniel Eden
- daneden.me/rss.xml
- Daniel seems to only post a few times a year, but when he does, I really enjoy his thoughts.
- Adam Silver
- adamsilver.io/atom.xml
- Been enjoying a lot of Adam’s posts lately. He’s a newcomer to my feed. I don't even know how I found him. But he writes a lot of good stuff around designing and making simple, clear, perhaps less-than-sexy but much-more-clear user interfaces—always with emphasis on accessibility. He’s influenced some of my more recent writing.
- danluu.com
- danluu.com/atom.xml
- This feed is usually full of technical stuff way over my head, but I’ve enjoyed reading it as of late.
- JavaScript Weekly
- javascriptweekly.com/rss/
- Apart from (the drama of) JavaScript twitter, this has been the best feed I’ve found for trying to keep up with practical developments in the world of JavaScript. This feed helps me know how to write JavaScript, my perennial feeds up above help me know when and why to write JavaScript.
- Overreacted by Dan Abramov
- overreacted.io/rss.xml
- Dan is just so good at taking an idea or concept and explaining it in such a clear way that even I can understand it. Seriously, if I ever start reading technical writing with my 4 year old at night before bed, I’ll reach for Dan’s writings because I know it’ll be intelligible.
- Two-Bit History
- twobithistory.org/feed.xml
- “Computing through the ages” is the tagline of this blog. Mostly its in-depth stuff about computers that usually goes way over my head, but I still enjoy reading the writer's geeking out on tech.
- quirksmode by Peter-Paul Koch
Brand/Project Favorites
Just some projects/brands who put out RSS feeds that I like to follow and stay current on.