[wannabebarista]

There's clearly not a one-size-fits-all answer to this. I am a big advocate of reading widely and often especially during your early career. It's surprising how often tidbits from seemingly unrelated areas help one contextualize situations and generate new ideas. Plus, work time during one's early early career is usually unproductive work-wise but highly productive learning-wise.

A related problem is how to balance reading the background material with getting started on a project. How many papers should one read in an area before writing their paper? How familiar should one be with a technique before presenting the results to business partners?