Technology is moving at an ever changing pace, in the Microsoft stack alone it seems to change every month. As a developer the risk you face is massive if you don't keep up and keeping up is getting ever harder. Some developers have the spare time to keep up however if you have family or work long hours (or both) and you have no spare time. Some jobs afford you the time to look at new technology but that time has to be balanced with getting the job done, most jobs put the needs of the busines\customer first and technology last (if the job gets done it gets done). Technology adoption is far slower than technology advancement but as developers we need to know the latest and greatest or risk technology redundancy. What do you do to stay ahead?