[opendais]

> My nights & weekends developing software for my employer are investments in myself.

No offense, but if they were investments in yourself I think you'd be either:

A) Moonlight for $$

B) Working on a startup idea you were thinking about [you are on HN after all]

The skill gain from doing stuff for your employer for $0, at least to me, doesn't seem equal to the return from things that my benefit me financially one day.

[danudey]

I'm not the parent, but here's my input: As a sysadmin/devops type who mostly enjoys building infrastructure, none of the stuff I've learned at work could really be done on my own time, and none of it is stuff I would be likely to find via contract work (or at least, nothing that I could schedule around a 9-5 job).

Also, not everyone has, or wants to execute on, startup ideas. Some people don't want to be founders. Some people don't want the stress, the responsibility, etc. I sure don't. I have a nice job where I can do experimental things with small/medium-sized infrastructure, I have a much higher budget than I would in a startup, I get a steady paycheque and vacation time, and a lot of awesome coworkers.

So all the stuff I've done at my job, like the parent post, is investment in my skills. The things I've built here, the technologies I've learned, the failed experiments, all of it contributes towards my professional skills much more effectively and more efficiently than doing it in my spare time, for a contract, or for a startup idea.

[opendais]

That is valid, I guess this is a case of my point of view clouding my judgement about what other people's options are. :)