There’s this phenomenon on Twitter called #followfriday were people post a list consisting of a few interesting people to follow on Fridays. I like this idea. I often find people through these recommendations that post valuable and interesting ideas to twitter and I end up being an avid follower. The 140 character rule of twitter often limits explanations with these lists. I’d like to know why these wonderful people are being recommended. So today, I decided to move #followfriday to my blog to allow me the space to explain my fascination with the people I recommend.
In no particular order:
Jay Parkinson
Jay is the doctor of the future. He’s the founder of Hello Health, an innovative health care social system and The Future Well, health design firm. He repeatedly writes great posts about health, health care, food and his personal life that inspire me in multiple ways. I find it evident from his writing that he really cares about his profession and how health decisions affect the people. If he lived in Iceland, I’d pay him big bucks to be my doctor!
Marco Arment
Marco is the creator of Instapaper, one of my all time favorite online tools. He’s also a tech writer. His blog is a mix of articles on Instapaper and tech and software thoughts. I like his development principles. He seems to really think about features and why or why not they should exist within his software. He’s really transparent about how he makes these decisions and that, I think, helps the software community more than any of those How-To articles and tutorials.
LukeW
Luke Wroblewski is a smart guy. I follow his blog mostly because he goes to events and conferences on web design, software development, usability and technology and transcribes the talks so meticulously that you could almost have been there yourself. If you work on the web you will do yourself a big favor by following Luke. I think it’s a great way to stay up to date on what is happening in this ever changing field.
Leo Babauta
I’ve been following Leo for a very long time. Most notably, he runs the Zenhabits blog but he also has some interesting projects such as mnmlist. Leo writes about minimalism, simplicity, inner peace, attention, love and personal achievement in a unique way. He’s honest, clear and gets straight to the point. He’s not afraid to change his mind on what he’s written before, iterate on his ideas and relay the process to his readers. His writing has been an inspiration to me and often significantly changed the way I lead and think about my life.
Alastair Humphreys
I just recently stumbled upon Alastair online but I quickly fell in love with his ideas and overall passion for an active lifestyle. Alastair writes, talks and produces videos about adventures and how you, as a busy person, can enjoy nature based activities in a simple and even minified way.
Liz Danzico
Liz is extraordinary with words. Her thoughts on various subjects are a joy to read. She’s a designer, information architect and editor. Her posts are insightful and very varied but still follow a subtle theme. I find that I can’t read Liz’s posts unless I give myself plenty of time to enjoy them and really reflect/imagine. So I usually Instapaper them and read them when I’m truly comfortable at home and have nothing distracting me.
Adam Ellis
Adam is amazing. I recently discovered his comics and instantly became hooked. He has a very distintive style and I really love how he incorporates his comics into the blogging platform to tell a story, usually about himself. I’ve expressed my joy from his comics in laughter so many times that my wife commissioned him to draw me and Panda for my 31st birthday.
Buster Benson
Buster is the founder and CTO of a newly formed start-up called Habit Labs. Although I currently don’t use any of his projects I can’t help but be fascinated by the way he thinks and builds web applications. He’s currently building Habit Labs and working on some super secret product called Budge. For a QS, health and gamification nerd it’s exciting it see what he comes up with next.
Dave Pell
Dave writes about the psychological and social issues that we encounter as we walk the perilous grounds of the internet in a witty, sharp and highly personal way. He brings up concerns that internet addicts like myself need to stop and think about. Truly insightful and not at all boring.
What I find all these people have in common is that they are doing what they love and writing about it. Sharing their wisdom and experiences. They radiate enthusiasm and passion and you can’t help but feel that you need to keep a close eye on them so not to, somehow, get left behind.
