One of the difficulties i have is to lower my urge to learn new things (Languages, tools, frameworks etc.). I know it's good to stay the bleeding edge, but at the same time i want to learn things properly. I really see that i need to strike a balance between staying bleeding edge and knowing things properly.
For example:
Before choosing Arch (Desktop), Ubuntu(Server) and Knoppix(Portable) -- depending on situation -- as favourite distributions. Virtually i have tried all popular linux distributions. You name any popular linux (Redhat, Ubuntu, Arch, Suse, Knoppix, Slax, Slackware) i have tried it for some time. In fact i have spent few years experimenting the operating systems.
Before choosing Python, Javascript (nodejs). I have tried all the languages i cameacross Scala, Haskell, Erlang, Ruby, Python, Perl, Scheme.
Same applies for database. All popular db RDBMS (Oracle, Mysql, Postgres, SQLite[Favourite] etc) and NoSQL (Mongo, Couch, Neo4j etc.).
Advantages i see:
We get a overall picture of the technologies/tools/languages. It's useful to select the right tool for the job.
We develop a taste and choose the One we like.
Disadvantages:
I feel that i spend somuch time and see a need to strike a balance.
In summary, for e.g. If i see a blog post in HackerNews about CofeeScript i will try it out irrespective of what i am currently learning (Say Haskell). I switch back to learning Haskell, then again i see DART i check it out. And this continues.. Effectively i take more time to learn Haskell, but learnt about other new stuff on the way.
The quetion i have is how do you strike a balance between staying bleeding edge and learning properly.
