Watch the Commits

If you use an open source tool regularly, watch the repo. GitHub lets you filter to just releases, or go all-in with commits and PRs.

I do this with Claude Code, Swift, and LeRobot.

(A note on Claude Code: the core is closed source, so you can't watch commits. Buuuut the changelog is gold!)

If you're lucky and catch the right commits/PRs, you get a peak into features before they're documented/shipped or perhaps bug fixes that explain weird behavior you noticed.

Reading other people's code is one of the best ways to pick up new patterns. Commits are bite-sized doses of that.

It's not always easy. You're parsing diffs, inferring intent, piecing together how a change fits the bigger picture. But that's kind of the point. Bjork calls this desirable difficulty. The friction makes it stick.

My setup is simple: watch notifications filtered to an email label. I scan subject lines when I have a minute. Most get archived. A few times a week something catches my eye and I dig in.