I try to learn a new platform every once in a while. The best way to learn is to do. So I pick a project from my list and try it out. That's how I learned I didn't like Meteor and Angular when they came out and were hyper hyped but I enjoy Go very much but only for certain things. Or how I learned I disliked PHP or loved working with Python, or that MongoDB is ok for some things and less so for others (or that Postgres is bliss). I used them for something and I find what is the problem those "tools" are best at solving and where they don't fit. Then some of them I keep using over and over again, and some I file under been-there-tried-that. What I really really try to do, is get peer-biased. Many times the internet hypes something for 5 minutes and dumps it later. Or ignores something for 5 years only to rediscover it and rave about it.
Totally agreed. I started respecting dynamic languages after I got a job writing Python. I'd underestimated a lot of the upsides and overestimated a lot of the downsides.
Ditto JS (and web apps in general), testing, functional(ish) design, package management and code autoformatters. Containers to a lesser extent. A bit of getting used to it, and then a very clear sense that actually this does make my life easier, that the benefits aren't just propaganda.
For a counterexample, I "used" and rolled my eyes at daily stand-ups, close in-team communication and project management process, and now that I'm working on a team that doesn't do any of that I miss it a lot.
I try to learn a new platform every once in a while. The best way to learn is to do. So I pick a project from my list and try it out. That's how I learned I didn't like Meteor and Angular when they came out and were hyper hyped but I enjoy Go very much but only for certain things. Or how I learned I disliked PHP or loved working with Python, or that MongoDB is ok for some things and less so for others (or that Postgres is bliss). I used them for something and I find what is the problem those "tools" are best at solving and where they don't fit. Then some of them I keep using over and over again, and some I file under been-there-tried-that. What I really really try to do, is get peer-biased. Many times the internet hypes something for 5 minutes and dumps it later. Or ignores something for 5 years only to rediscover it and rave about it.