My rule of thumb is this: For the domain you work in, you CAN use cutting-edge technology. For things outside the product domain, use standard (boring, time-tes

My rule of thumb is this: For the domain you work in, you CAN use cutting-edge technology. For things outside the product domain, use standard (boring, time-tested) technology to hedge risk. For example, when writing a DB, you might make use of a novel data structure, but don't use, for instance, an experimental parsing library.