To beat this dead horse one more time--it is not necessarily the frequency of the code updates that becomes so burdensome, but the sheer complexity of the code and the number of code changes which happen every three years.
Most electricians are not lawyers thank God, so trying to understand this very complicated document becomes almost impossible without many hours of study every year. So most of us I suspect learn to look up what we need to do a respectable and safe job.
Meanwhile, there are many in the business of teaching the code changes every three years. And where would NFPA be without all the income from the NEC and all the other literature they sell. Talk about built in motivation to do frequent and complicated code changes. For the same reason we will likely never see a flat federal income tax, because many people would have to close down either their tax prep or software businesses with the loss of many jobs. Turbo tax no longer works with Windows 98, so Microsoft even benefits from that. It just goes on and on like me. You can shoot me off of the pedestal any time you like!
