15 Twitter Accounts Every Web Developer Should Follow
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The web development world has a strong community on Twitter. If you’re a developer looking for inspiration, how-tos, and, of course, plenty of opinions, you can often find what you’re looking for with a quick search on the social network. But if you’re new to social media, or have historically only used it for cat pictures or complaining about flight delays, it can be overwhelming to know where to start.
We’ll save you some time. Here’s a carefully crafted list of funny industry personalities, accounts sharing helpful info, and seasoned developers. Here are 15 accounts every web developer should follow on Twitter.
Front End Developers
Catt Small | @cattsmall: Along with being a Product Designer at Etsy, Catt’s a programmer, game developer, and artist. Beyond coding and designing, she often speaks at conferences and helps run Good for PoC – a curated list of companies providing inclusive environments for people of color in tech.
Harry Roberts | @csswizardry: A front-end architect and consultant who’s worked with major brands like Google and Unilever, Harry knows the front-end development industry. He shares highlights from conferences, talks, and tips for web developers.
CSS Tricks | @Real_CSS_Tricks: If you work in front-end web development, you might have ended up on CSS-Tricks.com at some time or another. This web design community shares helpful demos and tips on all things CSS. It's an informative account to follow for when you're wanting to learn something new.
Jen Simmons | @jensimmons: As design advocate at Mozilla and producer of the popular The Web Ahead podcast, Jen knows web development. Beyond sharing helpful instructional articles, she weighs in on wider topics that the tech industry struggles with – such as diversity and representation.
Every team should be required to test their alpha on the NYC subway before shipping. Make it work under those network conditions. Seriously.
— Jen Simmons (@jensimmons) April 27, 2017
Rachel Andrew | @rachelandrew: Rachel knows front-end web development. Her Tweets cover CSS and JavaScript discoveries, along with funny quips of her travels as a frequent conference speaker.
Nathan Yau | @flowingdata: Need inspiration on a data visualization project? Nathan’s the perfect person to follow. He maps, explains, and presents data in a visually engaging way.
Weekly fatal traffic accidents in 2015 pic.twitter.com/e0GAjpoKIT
— Nathan Yau (@flowingdata) April 14, 2017
Ruby on Rails Developers
DHH | @dhh: It’s impossible to create list of Twitter feeds on the topic of Rails without including the creator of the language. David Heinemeier Hansson is now part of the Basecamp team, and you’ll find him Tweeting about growth at Basecamp, the flawed VC system in Silicon Valley, and a bit about Rails and updates.
The systemic pressures and subsequent spectacular failures that are born from VC-fueled excesses and hubris will not be solved by excuses.
— DHH (@dhh) April 29, 2017
Justin Searls | @searls: Fresh off a talk at #RailsConf, you’ll most recently see Tweets of Justin’s anxious slide prep for the conference. Beyond that, he’s often tweeting about building web apps, observations on how the industry can improve – and a bit of political commentary, as well.
Sarah Mei | @sarahmei: Sarah is an influential voice in all things Ruby on Rails. She founded the friendly and open RailsBridge community, and works as a developer and consultant. Her candid observations of the challenges herself and others face in this industry are refreshingly honest, and she’s an advocate for creating a more inclusive and safe space in tech.
It's also important, as a senior dev, to model soliciting & accepting feedback from everyone - all levels. Everyone has something to add.
— Sarah Mei (@sarahmei) May 2, 2017
Colin Jones | @trptcolin: Published author and CTO at 8th Light, Colin Jones still shares a lot of helpful information about Rails, Elixir, and beyond on Twitter. He’s proof that even experienced developers are constantly learning, and you’ll likely learn a thing or two from following him.
Thomas Fuchs | @thomasfuchs: Thomas is a longstanding contributor to the development community – on and off Twitter. An active member of the Rails community for years, he Tweets on topics like ill-conceived UI issues and different programming language shortcomings.
If programming language designers would design cars pic.twitter.com/Vbdzgm13iX
— Thomas Fuchs (@thomasfuchs) April 18, 2017
General Development
Trek Glowacki | @trek: Trek is a former Ember.js Core Team member, now working on a startup. Beyond his knowledge of JS, you should follow Trek because he’s hilarious. Tweet below, for proof.
Ancient Developer: Thank god all languages are shit or we'd have destroyed the world. https://t.co/DPpWzdTgP4
— Trek Glowacki (@trek) February 14, 2017
Egghead.io | @eggheadio: Visual learner? Look no further than Egghead.io to pick up a new skill or solve an existing issue. Egghead is a source for web development screencasts on topics like React, Angular, and Rails. While the content is a big JavaScript heavy, new additions are happening all the time.
Jason Fried | @jasonfried: As the Founder and CEO of Basecamp, Jason shares similar viewpoints with DHH on the way Silicon Valley and startups operate. He’s an advocate for remote work and transparency in the workplace, and is an especially progressive voice for tech leadership to follow.
Free Code Camp | @freecodecamp: Free Code Camp’s open source community has helped countless developers learn to code. If you’re an experienced developer, their Twitter account might give you nostalgia from when you were first starting out. They retweet observations and lessons learned from students’ #100DaysofCode.
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