[ultramancool]

This is the direction I try to take. Every time I hear about a new technology I go and read the basics of it and try to understand where I might use it. Then when an opportunity comes up, I investigate and see if it's truly applicable and worth learning. In my experience, trying to dive right in to something you don't have a relatively immediate use for tends to produce a lot of wasted time and make learning slower and harder given the lack of direction.