I mostly agree with you. However, there's something to be said for being conservative and not always tweaking things. C++11 is amazing. I'm still working to solidify my knowledge in it and haven't even peeked into c++14 or higher yet.

However, constantly learning and updating things has its drawbacks. One of the rare times I tried to be hip and use the latest stuff, I tried rewriting parts of a small Android app of mine using java 8 and lambda closures. I made it work, but it required upgrading my minimum build version (locking out older devices), the compiler could barely handle it (gave some strange indecipherable errors relating to lambdas), and ultimately it was just a step backward. That kind of thing really frustrates me, because it's wasted (at best, deferred) effort.