I am not a very talented programmer so I stick very close to what is common, standard, and easy to understand. It usually means I am on the downslope of the hype cycle and it limits some opportunities but I have become okay with that.

I have gotten some CS students who were about to shoot flies with various cannons turned on to SQLite. I kept a couple of the decent books about it nearby and would shove it into their hands at that point. Usually a week later they would be raving about it.