As I walked off stage after my talk, I got pulled aside by a young CS grad who needed advice. What he said broke my heart. "I'm using the AI tools, just like you said. But it changes so fast. I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this. I'm so tired. I feel sick." He'd accepted that AI fluency is now expected to land a job. So he was trying to learn everything. Ralph loops, OpenClaw, graph engineering. Before he could finish learning the current thing, something new would drop. Here's the thing: he's right that AI fluency is expected now. But fluency doesn't mean chasing every release. I stopped him and repeated what I'd said on stage minutes earlier: "You're not behind. You won't be behind if you skip this month's releases, and you won't be behind six months from now either." Most of what's hyped today will be gone or unrecognizable by next quarter. So my advice to him: look at what was hyped six months or a year ago and is still standing. Then ask three questions. Is there a business case? Are companies actually adopting it? Are developers I trust using it? The market moves slower than your feed does. Let the early adopters test every new toy. Learn what survives. I sat down over coffee with @TasonJorres from JetBrains at the @CommitYourCode conference to talk about exactly this: the skill of ignoring things, and what it costs you. Full 36-minute conversation 👇 #CYC26