Tech for its own sake is dull and pointless. Always has been. So are trends. In anything. Buy things that solve real problems you have; save money on the rest.

On the SWE side, if you don’t want to get out of software entirely find something to work on that isn’t just about tech. Find an aspect of the world that’s meaningful to you — maybe that’s biotech, maybe it’s plumbing — and build software that supports it.