How can you always stay updated while minimizing distractions? Consider adopting a strategy of learning from high-quality manually-curated engineering newsletters. One day, I asked myself: if I had to choose only a few technical newsletters focused on engineering, which ones would they be?

To compile my list, I considered various factors:

• Usefulness;
• Relevance;
• Length (as I tend to avoid long newsletters);
• The authors’ experience;
• Number of subscribers.

Most newsletters I recommend are available for free, while others require a monthly subscription fee of $10–15, often with a few free issues for everyone.

Here are the seven best picks for all software engineers. Let’s get started!

1. Tech Talks Weekly

Tech Talks Weekly is a newsletter delivering the latest trending tech talks across 100+ conferences like Devoxx, NDC, GOTO, JSConf, JSWORLD, dotJS, and more. They’ve also built a compilation of the most watched talks in 2023.

From the author:

“The only source you need to stay up-to-date with all the recently uploaded tech conference talks.”

2. Big Tech Digest

Delivered bi-weekly to your inbox, this carefully curated free newsletter brings you a collection of links to the latest engineering blog posts from Big Tech companies and startups. Aimed at all Software Engineers and AI/ML folks at any level, Big Tech Digest is your gateway to a staying up-to-date with the tech world. Subscribe now to join our community and embark on a never-ending journey of continuous learning!

3. Pragmatic Engineer

The Pragmatic Engineer is the #1 technology newsletter on Substack, offering a wide selection of long reads covering a variety of topics: engineering approaches, engineering culture, hiring, compensation, onboarding, retaining, attrition, working Big Tech and high-growth startups, tech news and technology trends.

From the author:

> “Altogether, these newsletters add up to about 5–7 books’ worth of information; more than half a million words (550,000 to be more exact.)”

4. Architecture Weekly

The #1 newsletter around software architecture. If Event Sourcing, CQRS, DDD, Event-Driven, or Hexagonal architecture catch your interest, this newsletter is for you.

From the author:

> “Internet is full of decent content, but it’s not easy to filter the noise and find what’s essential. I’m doing that for you. Every week, I gather a list of Software Architecture resources that helps to boost your skills.”

5. BetterDev

BetterDev provides a collection of informative, high-quality resources from the web around software development. One of the most “meaty” newsletters I subscribe to.

From the author:

> “BetterDev.Link collects links around the web that aims to help you learn something new. The topics aren’t tight to any specific programming languages, technologies or frameworks but attempt to include resources that might help you learn a thing or two from them.”

6. Hacker Newsletter

This is a weekly HackerNews roundup curated by hand. It’s another “must-subscribe” as it’s only focused on the top posts from HN every week.