[awesomegoat_com]

> it requires devoting time and effort towards its upkeep, and that is not our core business, nor should it be.

I would try to argue that this in fact may be subjective.

For me, updating all the dependencies in my stack every morning is a productivity routine that gets me started. If I spend a 30 minutes studying changelog of a dependency and linked github issues, I don't see that time as wasted even though it often does not contribute to the business. I think it has three benefits.

- easy morning start routine to get going

- developer education, expanding horizons

- code climate; having warn feeling in the gut of not falling behind, wanting to avoid dirty plugs and monkey patches, ability to work on the HEAD, should an issue arise.

[ysavir]

I think the parent comment is referring to the act of submitting code changes to Rails directly whenever behavior is needed. Staying up to date with what your dependencies are doing and why makes sense for any project, but actively contributing to the dependencies isn't necessarily a great investment when it doesn't benefit your bottom line in a direct and timely matter. Github has a large enough staff that it can dedicate time to open PRs to the Rails repo without giving up its own productivity, but if you're looking at a team of 10 developers, taking time away from your own product to improve Rails can be a significant time cost.