I'm not interested in "new" usually (but I do enjoy anything Heidi Howard releases in her research). I like distributed systems, highly available services, and operating at scale. I like thinking how we can improve systems to make customers happier and grow the bottom line. Sometimes, I'd probably keep optimizing a given service, but I also like monitoring services and determining ways to know if the service is meeting customer needs, and I let that guide or influence "good enough to delight customers." I like ownership. I want to own my services from data layer to public API, and to promote devops culture.

Not sure if this is the spirit of your question. I like moving products forward, and the tech is usually an implementation detail.