Still Working Even When Not Working

(Cross-posted to the mobile neurons blog)

One of the differences between working at a regular full-time job and working independently is that the time you spend reading about some new language or platform or method is still 'useful time'. At a job where you have a task to complete and are told which tools to use and a deliberately overly tight schedule, any time you spend reading articles or playing with new software is wasteful and you'd probably get reprimanded if you were cuaght reading Slashdot or EE Times when your boss thinks you should be 'working'.

But now when I am playing with a new development environment or experimenting with various ways to simplify the maintenance of our web site, I'm acquiring knowledge and skills that, while perhaps not immediately useful to a current client, may become incredibly useful on some future project.

Keeping up on the latest developments in the software field has turned from a bit of a time sink and distraction to a competitive advantage.

I should apologize to any veteran code ronins out there who know all this stuff already, I'm still very much new to this stuff and am discovering the ins and outs for the first time.
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