Influences

I've spent hours reading or listening to these people. I consider each of them to be leading experts in their field and great at communicating that expertise. The people on this list have been significant to my personal development and I recommend their work.

Embedded Electronics & Firmware

Phil Koopman
Elecia and Chris White
Phillip Johnston
Jack Ganssle
Michael Barr
John Regehr
Ken Shirriff

Software Development

Joel Spolsky
Jeff Atwood
Scott Hanselmann
Raymond Chen
Michael Lopp

Security & Encryption

Mikko Hyponnen
SwiftOnSecurity
Alan Woodward
Rik Ferguson
Bruce Schneier

Science and Skepticism

Carl Sagan
Isaac Asimov
Steven Novella
James Randi
Jim Al-Khalili
Phil Plait
Ben Goldacre
Simon Singh
Sean Carroll

Philosophy

Daniel Dennett
Massimo Pigliucci
Alex Malpass
Matt Dillahunty
Julian Baggini

Psychology

David McRaney
Oliver Burkeman
Richard Wiseman
Chris French

Worth Following on YouTube

Whilst some of these are not quite as influential on me as those listed above, these channels are recommended:

Electronics

SDG Electronics - Steve Gardner
EEVblog - Dave Jones
Marco Reps
GreatScott!
Kiss Analog - Eddie Aho
w2awe - Alan Wolke at TekTronix
VoltLog
mikeselectricstuff - Mike Harrison at White Wing Logic
Cybergibbons - Andrew Tierney at PenTestPartners
The Signal Path - Shahriar Shahramian
Prof Sam Ben-Yaakov - Professor at Ben Gurion University

Embedded Firmware

Phil Koopman - Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
Quantum Leaps, LLC - Dr. Miro Samek

Software Development Process & Management

Healthy Software Developer - Jayme Edwards
Continuous Delivery - Dave Farley

Podcasts

I listen to many hours of podcasts per week, using Overcast

Current Favourites

I try to keep up to date with:

Occasional listening:

I've listened to a few episodes of these, some I used to follow avidly. Some are discontinued but still available.

Electronics & Firmware

Software Development

Science and Skepticism

Philosophy

Psychology

Non Work-Related

Non Work-Related Podcasts

All of the above has some influence on my thinking about work-related topics. Those below are purely for pleasure.

Music

  • Sodajerker on Songwriting
  • Sound Opinions
  • The Queen Podcast

Science, Technology and Skepticism

  • Brain Science with Ginger Campbell, MD
  • Consequence - JREF
  • Curiosity Aroused - Rebecca Watson
  • Cautionary Tales - Tim Harford
  • Digital Bits Skeptic - Andy Kaiser
  • Hunting Humbug - Theo Clark
  • Material World - Quentin Cooper/BBC
  • Point of Inquiry - Chris Mooney
  • Quackcast - Mark Crislip
  • Science Talk - Steve Mirsky/Scientific American
  • Token Skeptic - Kylie Sturgess
  • Techdirt - Mike Masnick

Software and Computing

  • Herding Code - Scott Allen, Kevin Dente, Scott Koon, Jon Galloway
  • Polymorphic Podcast - Craig Shoemaker
  • The Retrobits Podcast
  • Software Engineering Radio