> Sure if you don't have a family and kids

Family and kids are, by any measure, a huge time and energy sink. But that too is also important work that must be done, even if it has professional costs.

The guys writing these new things, more often than not, don't have a family and kids and do have all that extra time. If you have committed to a family and kids, then join a shop where family people work and be content to use yesterday's stuff to get work done, it will still work fine for the most part. You don't have to keep up with everything, perhaps just general trends. Just watch out for that gentle slide into irrelevancy. ;)