Ask HN: What are some good sites for non tech people to keep up with tech?

8 comments

• _448 496 days ago
  Tech is a very broad term, it encompasses many domains e.g medicine, food, robotics, civil engineering etc. Not every website will cover everything. And even the technologists don't know what will be the next hit that will have profound impact on lives and when. One way to understand what could be on the horizon is to go through the company portfolios of major venture capital firms, read about research done by major universities, and follow few websites like Tech Crunch, The Register and Hacker News.

  > My wife was just asking me how we should prepare for old age and what we should watch out for.

  > One of my suggestions was making sure that we keep up with technology.

  That is a good idea, but tech is a moving target. It will be difficult to keep track of it regularly.

  What I would do, if I was in your place, is stop worrying about tech and instead think of what maximum places on this planet I could visit and start preparing for that. If you are in a western country, then I would urge you to visit those places that usually get bad press in the west, like countries in Asia, south America, middle-east, culturally vibrant countries like China and Iran, and countries in the Eurasian region. Just my 2cents :)
• yutijke 496 days ago
  I think the best way would be to just keep note of what the younger generation is using through your kids, nephews/nieces, etc.

  And tangentially since you are mentioning old age, I think cognitive decline is a bigger worry than finding the right resources to keep up with things.

  It has been painful to see my Grandfather who can otherwise show great insight on topics he is familiar with, struggle with understanding things a 5 year old would breeze through today. I would say having a respectful and trusting relationship with someone from the younger generation is very important since you may reach a point where you by yourself may not be able to keep up with things.

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  • iamflimflam1 494 days ago
    The cognitive decline is definitely something that worries me. It's been fascinating to observe changes in myself. The days when I would just brute force my to power through problems have definitely decreased in favour of using experience and shortcuts.

    I now make a conscious effort to check every so often that I'm not always using fast thinking and do actually apply real focus to questions.

    Definitely having younger people around really helps. And there will come a point where I simply just don't want to learn something new - this won't be from laziness - it will just be that it's very difficult.

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    • Forestessential 493 days ago
      take the right supplements, avoid stress. Learning to flow through stress in life and not have to muscle through absorption is important. Diet really does matter. Caffine shrinks your brain too btw. I think all coffee drinkers and especially energy drinkers eventually need to put that crap down so they can think straight 100%%
  • Forestessential 493 days ago
    This is really funny. Actually with the right diet and maintenance a person can be cognitively adept at ages over 70. And how you talk about a 5 year old haveing this inate ability to cognate at some high degree is simply false. Moraly they arent screwed up yet if that's what your people are talking about.
• sqrtc 495 days ago
  I’ve always thought of The Verge to be an accessible source of new tech, as well as broadening out a bit into more science and culture.
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  • Forestessential 493 days ago
    that one video they made of that kid making the PC was hilarious.. The kid just botched it in every way.
• dstala 496 days ago
  https://techcrunch.com/ https://gizmodo.com/
• ezedv 494 days ago
  I highly recommend this blog: https://www.ratherlabs.com/blog
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  • KomoD 494 days ago
    You highly recommend your own blog, lol

    Your entire comment history is you spamming that blog.
• MilnerRoute 496 days ago
  Major newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post have pretty good stories about what's happening in tech. (The Times also has a pretty good newsletter called On Tech.)
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  • Forestessential 493 days ago
    Not really. You are getting coverage on projects that are already public or are being promoted or it is a persuasive piece. The best news to ingest is that speaking of markets, trading, acquisitions, etc.
• nothrowaways 496 days ago
  Here.