If you're fortunate enough to have an employer that understands the benefits (always within reason), that's a win-win situation.

However, if it's not the case, I don't think that should be an impediment. Learn on your own time. Don't make your employer an excuse for your lack of knowledge.

Great post Karl!

>If you're fortunate enough to have an employer that understands the benefits (always within reason), that's a win-win situation.

Depending on your position/status, learning can occur without it being obvious, if you know what I mean  ;-) The goal is to improve the quality of software that you produce, which is something your employer does care about (I hope).

Increasing your knowledge can only add value to your employers business provided that a balance is kept between learning and delivering product.

If you're employer doesn't value staff development, they don't value their staff.

Good post.

> Depending on your position/status, learning can occur without it being obvious, if you know what I mean  ;-)

That's pretty much how I do it on my current job. I usually swallow my lunch as fast as I can so I can come back to my desk with more 30+ minutes to spare and do some reading. Sometimes (on slow work days) if my boss gets called to a meeting I might take that as an opportunity to read up/catch up.

What really frustrates me though is the fact that most people I work with (manager included) think that they've already learned all they need to learn. I usually get laughed at for being the guy that "goes home to keep staring at a computer screen after 8+ hours of work".

And don't even get me started on "oh that's a cool OSS tool/framework, I'm sure MS has something better though, let's check MSDN...", but I guess that's an off-topic rant for another day.

My boss at my previous job almost looked at me funny when I asked if it was okay for me do read up on stuff. He was upset I hadn't done so already.

Since then, I typically use the first half hour or so in the morning after checking the nightly jobs logs to do my "learning" Reading the blog posts while getting that cup of coffee in the system gets me energized for the work ahead.

In addition, having a couple of tech podcasts to listen to during the day is a big help. Granted the info doesn't stick as well since I'm listening while working, but I've picked up a good number of things along the way

>What really frustrates me though is the fact that most people I work with (manager included) think that they've already learned all they need to learn.

Agreed. What's also frustrating is taking on the role of learning new techniques and working with a team of people who don't have the same passion. I find this is very, very common. As a result, as I introduce new things I am often met with more whining and resistance than a desire to want to absorb the knowledge.

Learning as part of your job

Critical.

I think this is an area where a disconnect between IT and management often occurs. Companies need to assure they are providing and even financing additional/ continuous training. This is very important to foster an environment where IT staff retention is high. Most (good) techies are alot a like in the fact that there is a heavy thirst to learn. Managers really need to understand that and do what ever they can to support their employees in "keeping up"... Just like the commercial, "Moving at the speed of light", in reference to IT.

My two cents...

RA

It would boil down to the learning being your job in any case.

The question raised here is more about should you read let say books during work time or during your free time, after work. And that's actually 2 different questions.

I agree you should talk with your boss about it :) if something funny happen please post it :) i bet most managers would love the idea of you spending time at work reading stuff on the internet.

Good post. I have worked at companies that don't understand that people should be allowed to learn during office hours. When I had a dev team I implemented a policy that Friday afternoons were learning time. Sometimes you had to drop the afternoon to hit a deadline but the principal was correct I believe.

It's interesting that this is another area where development doesn't follow other disciplines. We wouldn't expect a surgeon to learn in his own time. We would put her with a more experienced surgeon and allow her to learn in this manner. The same applies in many professions.

Well you certainly do not work for yourself and you certainly do not work on fixed price bids.

Your view is unrealistic and it would appear that you would sanction internet study time then I am laughing out loud.

I am wondering should I fit that into my next bid.

Seriously, get with the real world.

We are trying to make money, not use the latest and the greatest which is what this often boils down to.

Next you'll have developers wanting to do functional programming because they did a 20 minute tutorial.

其实我一直想写篇文章来谈谈博客这些方面的事情。我虽然在博客上投入了很多，它也是我工作和生活中非常重要的一部分，也自认为写的不少亦不差，但是一直缺少对这方面的总结，以及系统的思考。即便是看着一轮又一轮地

其实我一直想写篇文章来谈谈博客这些方面的事情。我虽然在博客上投入了很多，它也是我工作和生活中非常重要的一部分，也自认为写的不少亦不差，但是一直缺少对这方面的总结，以及系统的思考。即便是看着一轮又一轮地“年度总结”过去，我也没有针对我的博客讨论过什么内容。之前也有过朋友问过我博客方面的事情，也有一些讨论引起我的思考，但都没有下决心写点文章。而这次就趁着一些冲动，细细谈一下博客方面的事情吧。