Poll: Ongoing professional self-education

I was reflecting today about how much work time I spend just *learning* stuff. As far as I'm concerned, that isn't optional: the programming business will happily steamroller you if you don't work hard to keep up with it, so I spend a considerable amount of time learning random programming languages and such, as well as the enormous amount I spend reading into new technologies for what I'm going to do next. (For instance, I spent nearly the entire past week teaching myself a new language and a new software package.) This leads me to be curious about how much time others spend in this. So let's have a poll!
[Poll #1310015]

Poll: Ongoing professional self-education

I was reflecting today about how much work time I spend just *learning* stuff. As far as I'm concerned, that isn't optional: the programming business will happily steamroller you if you don't work hard to keep up with it, so I spend a considerable amount of time learning random programming languages and such, as well as the enormous amount I spend reading into new technologies for what I'm going to do next. (For instance, I spent nearly the entire past week teaching myself a new language and a new software package.) This leads me to be curious about how much time others spend in this. So let's have a poll!
[Poll #1310015]

Back on the silly microblog

In case anybody cares: I've gotten myself back onto Twitter again. I've actually had an account there for ages, but haven't checked it since their IM integration broke months ago. (It's been at "we'll fix it Real Soon Now" ever since, and I can't be bothered to go to their website.)

But in my business, Twitter is kind of expected (you're not anybody in social media these days if you're not on the thing), so I finally downloaded a decent client (Twhirl), and I'm up and running again. I still think it's essentially a toy, but it's one of the few services in approximately the same space as CommYou. (That is, easy semi-realtime conversation.) It serves as a good constant reminder to me of what I'm trying to do better.

Anyway: I have my usual handle over there; feel free to friend me...

Back on the silly microblog

In case anybody cares: I've gotten myself back onto Twitter again. I've actually had an account there for ages, but haven't checked it since their IM integration broke months ago. (It's been at "we'll fix it Real Soon Now" ever since, and I can't be bothered to go to their website.)

But in my business, Twitter is kind of expected (you're not anybody in social media these days if you're not on the thing), so I finally downloaded a decent client (Twhirl), and I'm up and running again. I still think it's essentially a toy, but it's one of the few services in approximately the same space as CommYou. (That is, easy semi-realtime conversation.) It serves as a good constant reminder to me of what I'm trying to do better.

Anyway: I have my usual handle over there; feel free to friend me...