Inspired by Real People: A Personal Reference List
1 min readIn today’s social media era, where influencers dominate attention, feeds, and algorithms, it has become harder to discover genuine people who are doing meaningful work in domains I care about.
I still remember the internet before the rise of social media, when people openly shared their work and learnings. With influencers, however, the focus has shifted to interview prep, packages, and brand collaborations. Over time, I found myself frustrated, as it became increasingly difficult to find real people and their work.
I follow a simple rule: block or mute those who spam or post irrelevant content. But even then, filtering through the noise wasn’t enough.
A few months ago, while reading Designing Data-Intensive Applications (DDIA), I noticed references to names, research papers, and books. This inspired me to dig deeper into those people and their contributions. That exploration helped me rediscover a set of individuals whose stories, research, and journeys continue to inspire me.
I’ve started keeping a list here — partly for my own reference, and partly as a way to highlight people whose work feels authentic and meaningful.
Happy Learning!!