[nine_k]

There's a difference between procrastination and play.

Children play all the time. They don't usually engage in orderly head-down strictly optimal activities unless parents or school forces them.

Still, children learn a lot of stuff. (Have you tried to learn a language in 3 years without a single grammar book and no dictionaries? That's what babies do playing.)

Grown-ups can optimize their activities and learn the urgently necessary things faster, while also doing the chores that win them bread (and hopefully some bacon). But stopping to learn random related things, stopping to play with things that are related with whatever makes them "productive" is a mistake.

Well, maybe one can learn how to fell trees or milk cows in one year and then never have to learn anything new. I suppose that HN crowd is not like that.

Any member of the IT crowd is facing a constantly changing landscape. There's no chance to stay relevant in 10 years unless you constantly learn about a lot of things and take time to get your hands dirty with some of them. Often you don't have a chance to learn many new things while being paid for it, so you have to find time and play with them.

This playing gives you experience that may be relevant and valuable for your next gig. it may land you on your next gig.

~15 years ago I started to play with then-immature Python, Java, and Web, on my free time that I could be spending on making more money. In a few years I found out that people with experience in this are in demand, and eventually it led mo to a job at JetBrains, writing a top Python IDE in Java. (Regarding the Web technologies — should I even comment?..) Have I not played with Linux when it still seemed "pointless", I'd have much harder time getting me a number of my programmer and sysadmin jobs.

Currently I play with things like Haskell and Clojure and many others that don't win me any money. Well, maybe they never will. In any case, it's still fun!

[jrarredondo]

You were really learning through playing. Learning is an investment. Not all play is learning.

Another distinction is that children are fed by their parents. So if you have a "parent" in your company who "feeds" you then you can play a lot (of course, until they realize you are 18 and kick you out of the house).

OP's point is that you need to build code or sell code. If learning helps you do either one, then I think it is not procrastination.

[nine_k]

OP also seemed to learn a thing or two in the process. I suppose it's still valuable, it just does not usually pay off the same day.

Maybe 3 days of continued play is too much, though. It depends on urgency of other issues you might have.