Coping with rapidly changing technology (in particular Microsoft) [closed]

Question

Today as I booted up Visual Studio 2008 to do my work, I saw on the Start page a new blog post about Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0.

I can't help but feel a little overwhelmed. I am just starting to come to grip with all the stuff Microsoft added in .NET 3.0 & 3.5 (LINQ, WPF, lambda functions, etc, etc).... I know these things are no longer new, especially for the folks here, but I've been too busy solving real problems for customers... albeit with "older" technologies like .NET 2.0, and haven't had time to continually keep up.

Sorry my question is non-technical but I think its very relevant for programmers, both employees and independent consultants, as well as software businesses (which I aspire to start one day): How to you cope with such rapid change, and still stay relevant? Do you ignore it until you need it or do you try to stay ahead? I'd love to stay ahead and stay relevant (read: keep my house and food on table), and not stuck working on legacy stuff, but it just seems like an endless treadmill. Especially with MS... it seems like they have so much money and people that they just keep pumping out new stuff... and worse, rendering previous technologies obsolete and unsupported (like VB6... something from my previous life).

Answer 1

You don't need to be constantly updating your production work to use the latest and greatest technology. But you should stay knowledgable about what is out there and what is being created. There will come a time when it is appropriate to start using the new technology, but that all heavily depends on your projects and timelines.

But at some point you will need to move on. Certain technologies become unsupported. You should be aware of when this will happen, and plan the future of your production work to match.

Answer 2

<rant>
Personally, I wish Microsoft would fix bugs first before releasing any more new widgets, frameworks, or whizbang thingamajigs. There are known bugs in .NET still around from 1.1 and early 2.0 - bugs that are five years old or older that MS shows no inclination to fix. C'mon, MS, just take a year and fix things, then bring on the new stuff.
</rant>

On the upside, if you wait a year or two (or SP2, which ever is longer) before using MS's newest stuff, it tends to be pretty good.

EDIT: in the interest of actually providing an "answer" to the question, I tend to learn what I need as I go (Google is your friend!), and don't get too excited about the latest shiny widget from Microsoft or anyone else. Far too often it is just the same old stuff in a brand new package. When the rare gem appears its' hard to miss (buzz buzz goes the Internet!).