There will always be another release you have not tried. A useful learning plan needs a better success condition than keeping up with every announcement.
Start with the work you want to be able to do. Build a reliable service. Understand a slow query. Review an unfamiliar codebase. Turn a vague request into a small, usable product. Specific capabilities help you choose what deserves your attention.
Keep one foundation and one experiment
Choose a durable topic to study steadily: data structures, databases, networking, testing, or system design. Alongside it, try one newer tool in a bounded project. The foundation helps you understand the experiment; the experiment gives the foundation somewhere to live.
You do not have to become an expert in everything at once. Learn enough to explain the problem, recognize the main tradeoffs, and know what you need to investigate next.
Build something small enough to finish
A command-line search tool can teach you about files, data structures, text processing, and testing. A tiny API can teach you about validation, persistence, authorization, and failure handling. A constrained project creates useful questions without burying you in setup.
Use AI as a collaborator: ask for counterexamples, alternative approaches, and explanations. Then close the answer and reconstruct the important idea yourself.
If you can explain a choice, test it, and adapt it when the constraints change, you are learning something you can carry forward.
Review what changed in your thinking
At the end of a week, write down one thing you can now explain, one assumption you corrected, and one problem you still cannot solve. Revisit an earlier exercise without notes. Mix topics occasionally so you have to choose a technique instead of being told which one to use.
Staying relevant is not a guarantee any course or tool can offer. But a habit of asking better questions, learning fundamentals, and finishing useful work gives you a practical way to respond to change.
If algorithms are your next foundation, the free Go and JavaScript field guides provide a structured place to start.