Can't the doctor read medical journals and published papers in their fields instead of tweets from a select few peers?
Very much agreed. Curated, peer-reviewed, or just generally thought through by more than one person -- we need more of that.
What's the analogue to that in the software development space? Following a project usually means following a person, unless you're talking about huge projects maintained by a team of developers.
I suspect he's referring to following HN and similar communities.
Or, scientific research? We do have that in IT.
I think they mean following them on github to see what they're starring and working on.