Key takeaways
- The best tech influencers to follow are people who build, research or report on the tools you use.
- Start with one or two groups that match your work, then add accounts as your interests grow.
- TechTwitter IO keeps a free who-to-follow page of real accounts and runs a satirical daily paper about tech Twitter.
The tech influencers to follow are the people who build, research or report on the tools you care about, not the accounts with the loudest growth tricks. TechTwitter IO keeps a free who-to-follow page that sorts real accounts on X into groups with a short note on each, so you can pick the ones closest to your work in a few minutes.
Start with the group that matches your work
Do not follow everyone at once. Pick the one or two groups below that match what you build, follow a handful from each, and add more later.
| If you work on | Start with |
|---|---|
| AI models and research | @karpathy, @fchollet, @lilianweng, @_akhaliq |
| Shipping apps with AI | @simonw, @swyx, @emollick, @rasbt |
| Web and systems code | @mitchellh, @evanyou, @dhh, @ThePrimeagen |
| Your own small product | @levelsio, @marclou, @arvidkahl, @tdinh_me |
| Companies and money | @paulg, @patrickc, @tobi, @eladgil |
| Industry news | @Techmeme, @benthompson, @markgurman |
AI researchers worth the follow
- Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy) was a founding member of OpenAI and ran AI at Tesla. His long posts walk through how models actually work.
- François Chollet (@fchollet) made Keras and the ARC-AGI benchmark.
- Lilian Weng (@lilianweng) writes Lil'Log, a blog with deep dives into machine learning.
- AK (@_akhaliq) shares new AI papers on the day they appear.
- Gary Marcus (@GaryMarcus) is the counterweight: the best-known skeptic of current AI claims.
Builders who post their work
Simon Willison (@simonw) co-created Django and writes up each new model he tests, often on release day. Shawn Wang (@swyx) named the "AI engineer" role and runs the Latent Space podcast. Ethan Mollick (@emollick) teaches at Wharton and tests AI on real jobs. On the indie side, Pieter Levels (@levelsio) and Marc Lou (@marclou) run small companies and share revenue in public.
Engineers with strong views
Mitchell Hashimoto (@mitchellh) created Terraform and later the Ghostty terminal. Evan You (@evanyou) wrote Vue and Vite. DHH (@dhh) built Ruby on Rails and pushes back on complexity and cloud bills. ThePrimeagen left Netflix to stream about Vim and Rust. Expect to disagree with some of them; that is part of the value.
How to make the list work for you
- Follow a small set first, then grow it.
- Like and reply to the posts you want more of. The For You tab picks this up within a week or two.
- Reply more than you post at the start. A helpful reply under a big account gets seen by more people than a new account's own post.
- Share what you are building, with screenshots.
- Mute words and unfollow without guilt. Nobody gets a notice.
Keep up without living on the timeline
Following the right tech influencers fills your feed, but it also fills your day. TechTwitter IO is the shortcut: a free daily paper that turns the week's launches, layoffs, ratios and feuds into satire, with puzzles like Connections, Jumble and Who Tweeted It? in its Fun & Games section. It is parody, so read it for the jokes. For straight headlines, the who-to-follow page points to @Techmeme and the unofficial Hacker News bot, @newsycombinator.
If you only want news and no personalities, a plain RSS reader with Techmeme and Hacker News is the better choice than any follow list.
Frequently asked questions
Who are good tech influencers to follow for AI?
Andrej Karpathy, Simon Willison, François Chollet and Ethan Mollick are good starting points from the TechTwitter IO list.
Where can I find tech people to follow on X?
TechTwitter IO's who-to-follow page groups real accounts by field, with a short note on why each is worth a follow.
Is TechTwitter IO a news site?
No. It is a satirical paper. Its posts and quotes are parody unless they link to a source, so use Techmeme or Hacker News for straight news.
Sources
- How to get into tech Twitter: who to followTechTwitter IO
- TechTwitter IO, today's paperTechTwitter IO
