[bendixso]

I'm not sure what would be unpopular about this. It's totally true. When you aren't charging a bazillion dollars an hour to write software, there's much less pressure to hit deadlines. And generally speaking most people perform better on cognitive tasks like programming and learning when they don't have a gun to the back of their head.

If your employer is willing to subsidize your learning, count yourself extremely lucky. Most companies don't have the luxury to do that. They're pressed for time, so instead of having you learn the right way to do something, you tend to get pushed towards quick implementations that 'will do' for now. Even companies with the best intentions face this problem because their clients will set some arbitrary deadline that they have to stick to

When you're on your own time, you can relax and explore the subject matter in depth. It's this process of exploration that will make you better.

Just remember that it's a selfish world out there. Nobody cares if you're getting better as a programmer. If you want to get better, you have to invest in yourself.