1. Not necessarily. It would probably be more accurate to say 'if you want to get hired in Silicon Valley/some startup/tech company using the latest tech, then

1. Not necessarily. It would probably be more accurate to say 'if you want to get hired in Silicon Valley/some startup/tech company using the latest tech, then you need to know the tools in fashion'. If you don't mind not getting $100,000+ a year or not working in Silicon Valley, there are many thousands of companies hiring developers who don't need knowledge of whatever's popular at the moment, either because they've got an old system and need someone to maintain it or because they just work with older technology for many/all their projects. You could also easily get into contracting or freelance development too, since many companies don't really care what tech a developer/team uses so long as the work gets done. 2. But this is definitely true. Additionally, your average Joe doesn't care about the tech you use. They care about what the product actually does, and if works well...they won't care if it's React or jQuery (or whatever).