Effectively this site is blocked if you are using FireFox. and that's why I keep IE and Safari and Chrome and .... great plan.... I predict a plugin to whitelist sites before long.... or, to outright "fix" this problem....

That's not how I read your comment.

Agreed, it's important to keep relevant, and to learn new languages, technologies, etc. Many of the new tools, just re-invent old solutions with incremental improvements. For most businesses, it's just not worth the cost to jump to something new. Also, the risk-adverse nature of high availability environments dictates an attitude of measured and careful change.

Your clarification on staying relevant makes your initial statement clearer.

In the end, most of us will be working with technology long out of date, because it pays, and occasionally with technology that is new, because we want too.

Now there a new meaning for Kernel Panic!

Employed developers will continue to use Java, COBOL, Pascal, or whatever their employer's code-base is written in. This seldom has anything to do with the skill of the developer, and almost everything to do with the cost of converting functional, stable code to a new language. The case to move to a new language must include benefits in excess of the stability of the existing code-base.

Average developers will make a mess of any code-base, regardless of the "new hotness" status of the language.

Its like whispering.. except you can't drown it out by talking... without yelling.. which would make you more annoying to everyone...