Will I ever know it all?

You take 12 years of general schooling. You finish college. At that point you tend to think that you've learned all you need to make it through life. Then you decide you want to be a programmer. You have no idea the amount of constant learning you will do.

When I first started programming, I remember asking my big sister who programmed in Clipper at the time, "Will I ever know it all, does the learning ever stop?". To which she laughed for quite some time. I didn't understand at the time how funny and rediculous that question was.

Programming Languages I learned in succession:

Visual Basic 3.0 (1993 - 16-bit and Microsoft Jet Database Engine)
Visual Basic 4.0 (1995 - 16 & 32 bit. OLE controls, precursor to ActiveX controls)
Visual Basic 5.0 (1997 - 32-bit exclusively. Create custom controls)
Visual Basic 6.0 (1998 - web-based applications available)
Visual Basic .Net (2002 - first .Net release along with C#)
Visual Basic .Net 2003 (2003 - introduction of .Net Compact Framework)
Visual Basic 2005 (2005 - Dropped the .Net designation. Edit and Continue)
C# (object oriented programming, strict)

Enough with the history lesson. Why did I outline the languages and dates? To provide evidence that there is not a gap any larger than 2 years between a new version being introduced. This means constant learning. Just when you think you have a version and language perfected, you get thrown into the fire with a new release. It never ends. And I like it that way.

If you like to be constantly challenged, then you're in the right career. If you're not capable of teaching yourself a new idea or concept, then maybe you should try another career path.

OK, so how exactly do you stay up to date with the current version of whatever language is your fancy?