Staying up to date is a two-sided equation

Most people think of staying up to date as keeping up with the new.

Neophilia, the love of new things, can enable innovation. It can enable change and possibility in place where change hasn’t been possible before.

But the new is also the unproven. The risk of embracing the new is that that’s all it is: new, but without actual substance.

It’s easy to adopt new. It’s harder to recognize that you have to know the old to figure out where new belongs.

You need to learn about the new things, but you also need to know about the old things; and the difference between meaningful and meaningless.

Learn the old before you take on the new. Staying up to date isn’t about always being or doing new. It’s about being effective and meaningful.