"Monty suggests getting involved in open-source communities and spending time on personal projects. And he cautions that changing environments and code bases wi

"Monty suggests getting involved in open-source communities and spending time on personal projects. And he cautions that changing environments and code bases will mean even the best programmer has a lot of learning to do". This 100% Unless you are working for an employer (and there are many of you unfortunate people) who owns all code you do even in your own time on your own equipment - get going with personal open source projects. He says that the majority of his project only he uses, so don't worry about adoption. Also, don't worry about needing to be at the bleeding edge of technology. Sure, if you like exploring new stuff go for it, but for those who are not explorers so much you will have to spend time learning rather than making.