Depends on how you skied on straight skis. I demo'd "shaped skis" for the first time in 2000. Was a confident intermediate who only skied groomers, having learned during two seasons in middle school. But that meant I never knew how to make parallel turns with my feet close together. I skied very little between learning as a teen and 2000. Turned out my natural stance, which is usually described as "hip width" or "athletic stance," was perfect for those skis. I found that I was making parallel turns without even thinking about how to make that happen. Wasn't much point to keep skiing my straight skis (bought around 1982) after that. So the initial adjustment from straight skis was easy. However, it wasn't until I had a few lessons after 2008 that I starting making the most out of the design of skis made after 2005. By then I knew I would be skiing for more than I had as a working adult.
The related story is what happened for my ski buddy, Bill. (He knows I tell this story often.) Bill was an advanced skier who loved the bumps on Bell Mountain at Aspen during high school back in the 1960s. Fast forward to 2012 when I started doing mid-season ski trips to destination resorts with him. He had modern skis bought after 2007 and as far as I was concerned was an advanced/expert skier. Took a few years, but eventually I talked him into a semi-private lesson at Alta. It was his second lesson as an adult because we did one at JH with
@snoWYmonkey and another ski buddy the season before. But the lesson at Alta was different. The short story is that the crusty older instructor spent time on groomers working showing Bill how to make better use of his skis (tip rocker, camber, flat tail I think) by widening his stance just a bit. I was part of the lesson but the focus was on Bill while I continued working on fundamentals. It was helpful to me to observe a different approach to teaching how to achieve a "C turn." We had a second lesson with the same instructor a couple days later. Bill was starting to get it, so that turned into a powder lesson (short steep tree run off Supreme, boot deep snow on me). We did a couple more lessons during late season with a different L3 instructor. Took a few seasons to completely ingrain the new technique but bottom line is that now Bill can ski old-style and current style at will. Watching him make wedeln turns is really pretty on a groomer. But after a couple Taos Ski Weeks in the last couple seasons, watching him float down a bump run while making it look like a groomer, that's amazing!
Note that Bill is not someone who makes changes easily. Only reason he bought boots in 2012 at Big Sky was that his 25+ year old boots finally cracked in the middle of that ski week. Can't remember when he decided a helmet was a sensible choice but I think that was after he bought the boots.
There is no question that Bill appreciates that it was worth the effort to learn to use his skis more efficiently. He has one knee with no meniscus from an injury during high school. Although no one watching him ski would ever guess.