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 think they mean following them on github to see what they're starring and working on.

I suspect he's referring to following HN and similar communities.

Or, scientific research? We do have that in IT.

Why can't we have both?