Staying Ahead of the Curve

We all want to stay ahead of the curve – after all, that’s what you go to a conference for. But have you ever considered how being ahead of the curve might be dangerous? Using a new language before you understand it, putting a technology into production so you can learn it, abandoning “old practices” before you’ve got the benefit from them… These things are common practice, under the guise of Progress and Keeping Up To Date. But while we shouldn’t be running around like headless chickens chasing the next Shiny New Thing, we do need to see to our Continuous Learning and, of course, we should Embrace Change. How do we balance these two extremes? And how do we see to our own growth and learning as techies while meeting the needs of our project, team and organisation?