I don't try to keep myself updated. I don't listen to podcasts. I'm not subscribed to any data science newsletter. Neither do I go to meetups. I think this is all a distraction.
If I encounter a problem that I cannot solve sufficiently with the methods I already know, I start exploring and read material until I find something that does the job.
The other way around makes you try to apply your new and fancy method everywhere simply because you're excited about it and it's new.
There's a similar phenomenon in tech in general, when people suddenly start to adopt OOP everywhere or there's a new JavaScript framework around the corner without assessing what the benefit will be.
If I encounter a problem that I cannot solve sufficiently with the methods I already know, I start exploring and read material until I find something that does the job.
The other way around makes you try to apply your new and fancy method everywhere simply because you're excited about it and it's new.
There's a similar phenomenon in tech in general, when people suddenly start to adopt OOP everywhere or there's a new JavaScript framework around the corner without assessing what the benefit will be.