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Ask HN: What newsletters do you read every day or week?
148 points by shovel on May 2, 2015 | hide | past | favorite | 100 comments
It seems like there's been a massive resurgence in email newsletters recently. Maybe it's because slack has helped clear our inbox of tasks freeing up our inboxes for the kind of emails we love to read again.

Whatever it is, there's not much curation around email newsletters and there are just too many publishers to dig through (Mailchimp alone has 7m+ customers).

So I thought we could all share the best newsletters we're reading here.




Since Google Reader shut down, I've basically switched my behaviour to subscribing to sites via email and especially looking out for good curated weekly emails.

Here are my favourites at the moment:

iOS Dev Weekly : https://iosdevweekly.com/

Data Science Weekly : http://www.datascienceweekly.org/

Clojure Gazette : http://www.clojuregazette.com/

Ruby Weekly : http://rubyweekly.com/

Green Ruby : http://greenruby.org/

Founders Cabin : http://founderscabin.io/

SaaS Weekly : http://hiten.com/issues/

Also, shameless plug, I just started a weekly newsletter about Machine Learning, Data Science, Data Engineering:

http://datacoder.aidanf.net/


I'd like to second Ruby Weekly, great newsletter.


Here's an eclectic list to get started:

Company intel: http://mattermark.com

Hacker Newsletter: http://www.hackernewsletter.com

Curated design links: http://sidebar.io

Minimalism: http://nosidebar.com

Daily news and culture: http://nextdraft.com

Random pub trivia: http://nowiknow.com

Curated design and dev: http://mergelinks.com

Metal trivia: http://www.skulltoaster.com

Music mixes: http://noonpacific.com

Front end dev: http://hackingui.com


And of course, all or Peter Cooper's curated letters: https://cooperpress.com


Thanks!


Thanks! (I run Now I Know)


My favorites:

https://labnotes.org/ - fantastic, weekly summary on design, frontend, architecture, business, and some humor.

http://rubyweekly.com/ - a roundup of announcements, new gems, talks and more

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/tag/linkdump/ - monthly list of links related to science, hardware hacking, geekery

http://randsinrepose.com/ - a few posts a month, great advice and thinking about tech and team management.

http://consumeconsume.com/ - funny pictures of irony and shock, which always give me great material for tech presentations

For RSS->email I use IFTTT


Thank you for the consumeconsume link, great material to illustrate slides.


My List:

Hackernewsletter: http://hackernewsletter.com/

Python Weekly: http://www.PythonWeekly.com

JavaScript Weekly: http://javascriptweekly.com/

GameDev.js Weekly: http://gamedevjsweekly.com/

HTML5Weekly: http://html5weekly.com/

Perl Weekly: http://perlweekly.com/


Brainpickings is the only newsletter that I really, really do read every, every week. It comes on Sunday - the perfect day to kick back and read and think and stare out the window. Maria Popova always, always has (often several) something(s) in there to get me started.

http://brainpickings.org


If someone didn't mention this, I was going to. Always a feast of literary thought and stunning visuals I'd likely never see if I didn't get this newsletter.


Microwaves & RF : http://mwrf.com/

Electronic Design : http://electronicdesign.com/

IEEE Spectrum : http://spectrum.ieee.org/

Lobsters (HN with less noise) : http://lobste.rs/

Does anyone have recommendations for good electrical engineering/communications newsletters/sites?


The JEDEC SmartBrief is a really great overview of what's going on in the chip industry.

I also like getting Crowd Supply news every so often so I can see what's going on in the hobbyist space.


Major props for the JEDEC SmartBrief ref. Never knew this existed.


Fer EE newsletters: I find SemiWiki (https://www.semiwiki.com/) quite interesting. It leans a bit to the manufacturing side though.


Hey dkozel, lobsters looks great. Would love to join as a member. Need an invite though. Wondering if you are a member and whether you'd consider sending me an invite?


I don't.

Used to. In fact, this was a primary mode for me, until RSS. Then I used RSS to setup feeds I would pick through on a recurring basis. The noise levels have gone up, and my interests have changed with career and role changes too.

Now I default to a few communities, this one included, where I can follow and interact with others who have interests and experience I find relevant. Ideally, I contribute the same.

Dialogs are very important. The perspective matters to me. From there, I'll have realizations or questions which I then follow up in various ways, connecting things together.

From those places, I end up following up on information based on recommendations, supplied to me in conversation.

There are still quite a number of blogs I will check in on, and I've got 'em organized for my own needs. This is irregular, depending on what my interests actually are. And some are for entertainment too.

Some newsletters are pretty great. I would reconsider them given much improved curation. Not sure where others are at, but for me at least, it's an opportunity for somebody.

...and I have to plug podcasts here. Mostly, I'm using these for news and hobby entertainment right now, but there seems to be a lot of potential. I find myself with drive times and other odd bits of down time here and there. Audio is often a great solution. For me, a good podcast could serve as a newsletter, and it could drop right into some recurring time I have too.

Anyone have good tech oriented podcast recommendations? I would like to add a few shows to my queue.


>Some newsletters are pretty great. I would reconsider them given much improved curation. Not sure where others are at, but for me at least, it's an opportunity for somebody.

I'm actually trying to solve the problem of curation and discovery at Letterlist.com. It's amazing that there isn't really a great way to find the best newsletters yet.

I'm curious - what is the biggest barrier stopping you from subscribing to newsletters? Is it solely the curation issue?

And as for podcasts, it's a great question - I started a new thread (Ask HN: What must-listen podcasts do you subscribe to?)

- OP


Saw that one. Lots of good shows to follow up on. Thanks, and I should have done that long ago.

The biggest barriers for me are:

1. Time / relevance and the investment to figure that out. It helps to know the intent of the newsletter too. Some people are adding value to products and services with relevant commentary. That's a good thing, but only when I'm into the product or service. Others are sharing insights and perspective, sort of blogging via newsletter. Like those too.

And I'm search driven, so I'll land on one, and read the relevant bits, and sometimes subscribe. On that note, full content delivered to gmail sometimes is worth it. I've searched my mail, and found very relevant things in there, often long after they were published. Maybe there is something exploitable there.

2. Use of time. I can listen and do lots of things.

3. Interestingly, I would absolutely love a newsletter of news letters, where snippets that are relevant to me are presented in a dead simple mobile friendly read it quick format, or are presented as audio reviews of some sort.

The barrier here is good content that I don't know is good. Selling it to me in an easy to consume form would be kind of like a mentor who presses us to do or read something. Once in a while, I find one, and realize I should have been following it, and then binge on it to get caught up.

I would pay for this one. Having some service, or even persons or person who knows me enough to push and select high relevance things is worth a lot.

4. Speaking more specifically to #1, size matters. Popular ones seem to balloon up, and I'll tune out. To me, a short, but very potent newsletter can be just one item, but it's really worth it. I prefer this to a big one where a few gems are hidden among a lot of other things.


Might want to reach out to MailChimp about sponsoring Letterlist.com (Newsletters + startups is right up their street) or perhaps an integration once you've solved the curation and discovery problem (which I agree is a problem in need a solution).

-S.


Thanks for the suggestion. I've been toying with that idea, it's definitely worth exploring.


I am curious about the advantages of a newsletter over a blog featuring an RSS feed that you can subscribe to. The concept of getting mailed regularly seems so 1.0 and overcomplicated.

But my question is serious - I also maintain a data science blog and I'd like to evaluate offering a newsletter version of it.


My guess is that a lot of us here on HN probably use a feed reader (I use Feedly). But that's because we're outliers with a technical persuassion. Most people don't have the first idea about rss, but _everyone_ uses email.

I'd suggest there are 2 advantages to starting a newsletter:

1. You can plug your rss feed into the newsletter and broadcast your new articles via email for those who don't use rss.

2. You can email other updates, news, surveys etc that you don't publish on-site.

Email also opens up the discussion because your subscribers can respond any time. It's like the original social network.


I generally use newsletters as a filter. There is often way too much information to subscribe to in an RSS feed. Whereas if it is a curated newsletter then it makes for much better digestion. There is also the benefit of it not changing during time. I know if I've read it or if I've only come so far through it. It allows me to digest it at my own pace. I also separate out all my newsletters / to read articles into a specific folder in email. So it's not too unlike an RSS feed


I rely on newsletters instead of RSS because newsletters will sometimes send articles from publications I am not subscribed to, but if I subscribed to them, I would get too many unwanted articles.

Even if I decided to build up an RSS reading list again, I would rely on good newsletters to tell me about new sources.


Well for me personally, it offers the advantage that it's available. I don't have an RSS reader and I don't intend to get one. I am trying hard enough to maintain a low information diet as it is, but there are a few newsletters that I allow myself.


http://feedly.com/ is comfortable to use.


I subscribe to the Farnam Street weekly newsletter (http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/) and have been reading it regularly for the past few months -- good stuff.


I came here to say the same. Really high quality, thought-provoking content.


Ditto. I look forward to Farnam Street.


http://ben-evans.com/news/ a weekly newsletter by Ben Evans, which is highly insightful on mobile world. It has a seperate 'stats' section which is really nice


I am looking for a newsletter that covers sales funnels, content and landing page design. Does anyone know of such a newsletter?

I currently subscribe to:

Closing Call on sales http://closingcall.co Go Weekly on Go posts http://cooperpress.com Web Operations Weekly on devops posts http://cooperpress

I just found the http://hackingui.com and http://sidebar.io on this post, thanks


I am looking for a newsletter that covers sales funnels>

Craig Rosenberg's The Funnelholic may be just the thing you're looking for, unusually good coverage of the sales space > http://www.funnelholic.com/


AngelList Daily Transaction Digest (seed stage deals happening in real time): https://angel.co

iOS Dev Weekly: https://iosdevweekly.com/

Product Hunt Daily Digest: https://producthunt.com

Quora Weekly Digest: https://quora.com

Dollar a Day (donate a dollar to a different charity every day): https://dollaraday.co/


I create a Dev Tips Daily 5 days a week: https://umaar.com/dev-tips/ - It's basically a gif showcasing a DevTools feature.


Major fan here.

I can't believe this is not getting enough vote to rise to the top. This guy is unstoppable with amount of tips and the effort it goes into illustrating them with animated gifs.

*Must-follow for frontend developers


Thanks, that's very kind of you.


Nice, I have started to collect a list of newsletters in a google spreadsheet if you want to take a look or add some help yourself: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1u7Kb7iz6H5dnJJkOmZcd...


Thanks - this is so valuable. I plan to collate these in the same way so you just saved me a ton of time.


How can I contact you ?


Did you get my twitter DM last week? Otherwise try marc*letterlist.com

I'd love to talk


I look forward to this one every day, easily the best return on $100/year you'll ever get.

Stratechery: https://stratechery.com


Yep. Good pick.


Harpers Weekly Review: http://harpers.org/blog/weekly-review/ – hilarious summary of the news (which I don't read normally – if there was a war, this is how I'd find out, 0-7 days late)


Thanks, this is just the right length and diversity for a weekly.


http://awsweekly.net/ - A weekly roundup of AWS news

http://postgresweekly.com/

Perhaps someone should start a WeeklyNewsletterWeekly, curating the best weekly newsletters?


Farnam Street: http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/newsletter/

Software Lead Weekly: http://softwareleadweekly.com/

Starting Strength Weekly Report: http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/ss_weekly_report_...

Dan John's Wandering Weights: http://danjohn.net/wandering-weights/


a more UX-ey take rather than "what's the industry up to:"

kale davis' http://www.hackernewsletter.com/

peter cooper's javascript weekly javascriptweekly.com/

ux weekly: http://uxwkly.com

nickd's semi-weekly dispatch https://draft.nu/

ios dev weekly https://iosdevweekly.com/ (basically just read the design section)

designernews digest, but I feel like I've stopped getting that :(


- Hacker Newsletter (http://www.hackernewsletter.com/)

- O'Reilly Radar (http://radar.oreilly.com/)

- Right Relevance Daily Digest (http://rightrelevance.com/)

- TweetQureet Daily Tweets Digest (https://www.qureet.com)


Whats the list about?


For iOS developers:

This Week In Swift: https://swiftnews.curated.co

iOS Dev Weekly: https://iosdevweekly.com

In depth Mac and iOS articles: http://www.objc.io

Not strictly a newsletter, but a great weekly podcast for Mac and iOS developers is Core Intuition: http://www.coreint.org


My favorites:

MatterMark Daily - https://mattermark.com/

Designer News Digest - https://news.layervault.com/

Product Hunt Digest - http://www.producthunt.com/

Ray Winderlich iOS - http://www.raywenderlich.com/


This is my rifle,

DataElixir http://dataelixir.com/issues/33?#start

DevOps Weekly http://devopsweekly.com/

Ansible Weekly https://devopsu.com/newsletters/ansible-weekly-newsletter.ht...

Servers for Hackers https://serversforhackers.com/register?email=#

This is my gun...

CoolTools Newsletter http://kk.org/cooltools/ (and the related WinkBooks and WinkFun sites)

BrainPickings http://www.brainpickings.org/

MakerPro newsletter http://newsletter.makezine.com/t/ViewEmail/r/13D299B4C46EE7C...


Kickstarter HQ: Projects We Love - https://www.kickstarter.com/newsletters/weekly

NASA Earth Observatory - http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

ESO News (European Southern Observatory) - http://www.eso.org/public/newsletters/esonews/

Designers & Books - http://www.designersandbooks.com

NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology - http://www.nist.gov/

WeekendHacker - http://www.weekendhacker.net/

Maptia - https://maptia.com/ ("discover a world of remarkable stories, told by some of the most inspiring photographers, writers, and adventurers on the planet")


Check out,

Python Weekly http://www.pythonweekly.com

NoSQL Weekly http://www.nosqlweekly.com

Founder Weekly http://www.founderweekly.com

Disclaimer: I am the curator of these newsletters.


Just to add what have already been mentioned, Term Sheet by Dan Primack for all startup news, mainly around funding + other deals including PE. An aspiring VCs best friend https://fortune.com/newsletter/termsheet/


http://www.pointer.io

a reading club for developers


NYT Now Morning Briefing http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/membercenter/nyt-now...

The Upshot http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/upshot/

NYT Cooking http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/cooking/


http://www.datascienceweekly.org/

The editor picks are usually extremely good, and if I didn't read them already, I know that I should.


Not exactly newsletters since I read them on the Web but I enjoy checking out http://webplatformdaily.org/ every day of the week, as well as the weekly servo (http://blog.servo.org/) and io.js updates (https://medium.com/@iojs).


Here's the "API Developer Weekly" from the co-author of my API design book: http://bit.ly/apiWeekly We've been doing it for over a year.

And here are the past issues: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/home/?u=5005148108dfbac726f...


i'm the senior editor of netted (netted.net), the daily email from the webby awards, so newsletters are my thing. i read around 10 dailies, and more weeklies. i also write an album guide and new music monthly called the retrographer (http://tinyletter.com/ciwk). here's what i like:

- nextdraft

- today in tabs

- hacker newsletter

- saas weekly

- dan lewis' now i know

- buzzfeed news

- the quartz daily brief

- the skimm

- the politico playbook

- the capital playbook

- poncho

- i use digg's "news.me" service

- crunchbase daily

- ben cronin's two songs

- product hunt


Speaking of newsletters, I'd like to voice my love of tinyletter.com. I used it for the first time in 2010 and it's just as awesome 5 years later after the Mailchimp acquisition. I just started another newsletter on it last week and love the experience of using it. (Not posting the newsletter here because I don't want more subscribers and it's off topic), but yes. TinyLetter is <3.


My favorites

UX Design Weekly - http://uxdesignweekly.com/

Web Design Weekly - https://web-design-weekly.com

MergeLinks - http://mergelinks.com


Weekly Mobile News: http://weeklydigest.q2mobilelabs.com/ MediaRedefined: http://redef.com/channel/media


Thanks for the great list of letters here. I'll add your suggestions to Letterlist (http://letterlist.com).

A side-project (& newsletter) I'm working on to curate and share the best newsletters).


· Interview Cake Weekly Problem: https://www.interviewcake.com/

· The Muse: https://www.themuse.com/


SecuringPHP - http://www.securingphp.com

That's the only one I ever read. I've probably been subscribed to others but I never bother to check them; they're insta-junked.


"The Long Emergency", James Kunstler Peal Oil blog:

http://kunstler.com/writings/clusterfuck-nation/


My list :

hacker news : http://www.hackernewsletter.com/

techcrunch

hadoop weekly : http://www.hadoopweekly.com/


Only one http://caesuraletters.com/

A daily devotional for life-long learners, critical thinkers, mindful questioners, and other hopelessly inquisitive people.


Digital Health Weekly on RefreshBox: http://www.refreshbox.co/newsletterInfo/NJrHY744rhs


I filter a regional newspaper with IFTTT to get newsletters from my hometown.


In addition to much of what has been mentioned, I find Core 77 to be a very interesting newsletter:

http://www.core77.com/ - industrial design


Bitofnews provides a nice and short summary of current events, I quite like it.

http://news.bitofnews.com/#mc4wp_widget-2


I curate a newsletter for people who are interested in Lean Startup (http://leanstartupdigest.com) if anyone is interested


The Weekly Forekast: https://forekast.com/weekly It's a summary of notable upcoming events each week.


I write a weekly iOS dev nugget (often code-related). http://hboon.com/iosdevnuggets/


(The Atlantic) Alexis Madrigal's daily with 5 links, http://tinyletter.com/realfuture


I really enjoy Owen Williams "CHARGED" weekly newsletter" http://weekly.char.gd


For weekly music news and song recommendations: http://www.readthenote.com/


Github explore: https://github.com/explore/subscribe


Concerning marketing and design: http://allthesmallthings.co/


For Apple Watch app developer: Watch App Dev Weekly: http://develop.watch


What a cool domain


James Clear Newsletter over the rest http://jamesclear.com/


Medgadget newsletter is great: http://www.medgadget.com/


Android Weekly (for devs): http://androidweekly.net/


Priceonomics blog: http://blog.priceonomics.com/


Product Hunt, for new startup launches: https://producthunt.com


Bit of News: http://news.bitofnews.com/


Pycoders Weekly

DashingD3.js

Kickstarter newsletters for Underworld Ascendant, Project Eternity, Shroud of the Avatar and Tides of Numenera (still being a big child... :))

CrytpoGram

SemiWiki

some foodie newsletters


Changelog Nightly


Pycoders Weekly: http://pycoders.com/


http://webplatformdaily.org/


Technology news blog http://www.ghacks.net


Hacker News: http://www.hndigest.com


python weekly

javascript weekly

sidebar.io

Product Hunt

The New York Times newsletter

Quartz Daily Roundup

MusicGeeks

Aeon Magazine

Re/code Daily

Changelog Weekly

...and it looks like I'll be adding quite a few more from this thread!


Was surprised no one had mentioned Quartz (http://qz.com/) except in this post. They have quickly become my go-to for knowing what's happening in the world in just enough detail.

Similarly, I love The Conversation (https://theconversation.com) - started that one reading the UK edition, glad they have a US one now too, but still kind of liked following British politics.


Oh, yeah, another one: Slugball, which bills itself as "sports"-themed but really is much broader (http://slugball.com/).




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