[michaelbrave]

Ironically I was watching a talk on youtube yesterday by Richard Feldman of NoRedInk[0] that was basically explaining why and how they implemented Elm in production. The most interesting part of the talk to me was how he said it shaped their recruitment pipeline, going from needing recruiters to basically having it full and they can take their pick, and this mostly due to the fact that they were willing to use newer technology stacks. So the long and the short of it is I think you're right, this would affect retention and probably recruiting as well.

I'm a new developer looking for my first job and so I'm making side project to learn in the meantime and what I primarily want from a job is the ability to increase my skills, to get better and to improve, I feel like the kinds of places that are willing and able to experiment will not only have more of a learning culture but will attract others like that as well, so they are more attractive to me as a developer. I imagine this could be countered by things like proper mentor-ship programs or side project time like you've already implemented.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CYeZ2kEiOI