It’s information overload these days – how can a technology professional manage to keep up with everything that is new and exciting in the world of DevOps? What are the best methods for absorbing content and developing skills? Just how useful are podcasts, anyway? In this talk (inspired by an episode of my Arrested DevOps podcast) I share strategies for consuming information about techniques, concepts, and stories about DevOps. I include practical methods for acquiring information, managing intake of blogs, articles, and studies, and absorbing and synthesizing this information in an applicable way.

1. MANAGING YOUR
MENTAL STACK

2. WHOAMI
@mattstratton

3. INFORMATION OVERLOAD

5. PODCASTS

6. Listening to podcasts is a terribly inefficient way
of transferring actual information. It's a bit like
asking Grandpa Simpson for directions. It takes
45 minutes, consists mostly of historical
inaccuracies and long rants about the messed up
state of the world today, and at the end you're
not really sure you aren't more lost than when
you started. But it sure is entertaining.
-- John Smyth, the "Ron Swanson of DevOps"

7. PODCAST PRO TIP
LISTEN AT 2X SPEED

8. ABSORB IDEAS FIRST
UNDERSTAND THEM LATER

9. DECIDE WHAT IS
WORTH LEARNING

10. AVOID THE ECHO CHAMBER

11. INVESTIGATE

12. LEARN

13. DO

14. TEACH

15. HOWTO

16. INGEST ARTICLES IN "SKIM MODE"
▸ Twitter
▸ Fliboard
▸ RSS feeds

17. SHIP THEM INTO TEMPORARY STORAGE
▸ Pocket
▸ Instapaper
▸ Plain old bookmarks

18. READ THEM
LATER

19. WHAT ARE YOUR
TIPS?

20. RESOURCES
▸ Flipboard - http://flipboard.com/
▸ Pocket http://getpocket.com/
▸ Pomodoro Technique
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique
▸ VoodooPad https://plausible.coop/voodoopad/
▸ Arrested DevOps: Managing Your Mental Stack
http://www.arresteddevops.com/managing-your-mental-stack/