Why do I always feel like I’m too late for all the startup trends? How can I be at the front of the trends, executing?

Tech evangelist and blogger Robert Scoble shared his answer how to always keep up with the superfast technology trends. His facebook list is amazing.

Answer by Robert Scoble:

Here's how I stay ahead of the technology trends:

1. Study the money. Investors see everything before other groups. So, watch what they talk about. I built a Facebook list of investors here: https://www.facebook.com/lists/1…
2. Study the startups themselves. Startups often tell you what they are seeing. Also, they brag about partnerships, growth, etc. That will let you see new trends before other people see them. I built a Facebook list of 1,900 startups here: https://www.facebook.com/lists/1…
3. Study the programming tools. When a new tool comes along, it often predicts what kinds of technologies will be built in the future. I built a Facebook list of stuff for programmers here: https://www.facebook.com/lists/1…
4. Study the journalists. If you watch the journalists who cover tech, you can often see tech trends before others do who don't follow the news that closely. I built a Facebook list of journalists here: https://www.facebook.com/lists/1…

Some other things I do:

1. Network face-to-face. I'm in London right now and later today will meet with entrepreneurs and coworkers at Rackspace to learn about what they are building, seeing. Last week I visited Autodesk and Flipboard and talked with their execs. Autodesk showed me how big a deal 3D printing is becoming. Flipboard showed me new curation models and discussed the changing roles of social media in contextual software (I'm writing a book about that).
2. Visit University labs. I saw self-driving cars in 2007 at Stanford University, for instance, and interviewed the guy who built the algorithms for what became the Google car.
3. Visit research labs. I regularly visit SRI (where Siri and the mouse were invented), IBM Research (where the hard drive was invented, they currently are working on new storage techniques and new batteries), and Microsoft Research. They often know about and are working on trends five to 15 years out. SRI showed off the mouse and Windows in late 1960s and it wasn't until the Macintosh in 1984 that we could buy those technologies.
4. Watch TED videos. TED tries to identify trends before anyone else and get the world's leading experts on those trends to give talks about them. http://www.ted.com
5. Follow tech trends and topics on Quora. Quora is a great place to see what's happening. I am following about 100 topics (no people) and it's a great way to see what interests people in the tech world.

Hope that helps you stay current on trends. I've also built lists of tech executives and tech entrepreneurs over on Facebook that I will be sharing soon. Why Facebook? Because I can build lists of more than 500 things and share them with you (I can't do that on Twitter or Google+).

I have two other lists that are also helpful:

1. Tech VIPs. This is a list of people who have done extraordinary things in the tech industry. They often see trends before others. https://www.facebook.com/lists/1…
2. Big tech companies. Big tech companies often see trends and act on them. Here's a list of big tech companies: https://www.facebook.com/lists/1…

Why do I always feel like I’m too late for all the startup trends? How can I be at the front of the trends, executing?