Yea the hype train is real on that one :)
I solve that the following way:
On my private machine, I use arch with the newest features.
Work related I am using debian testing on the laptop. The packages are not the newest but I know everything is stable and upades are not in my way. (KDE 6 will arrive there late summer)
You saying the code quality of some of my colleagues is even worse on their personal projects? o_O