I just read this article. It exudes a heavy Teutonic attitude to life in that it assumes that all the time dedicated to work is meant to be directed by the employer’s will, or rigidly adhere to production-aimed customs.
An excerpt from it reads:
“Wait a minute! Should I sacrifice one hour of my precious spare time for learning things that I need for work? No way!!!”
You don’t have to (because you need that time for writing blog posts, coding and to prepare conference talks!)! It’s not “free time” aka time where I can do what I want (for parents: care and play with the children 😉 ). It’s the time between working hours, free time and sleeping time. Let’s call it “duty time” (isn’t there a better term for that?). Duty time is the time that we have to spent for going to work, purchase food, cook dinner, going to sleep and so on – all activities we have to do besides your primary work.
The trick is to refine some of the duty time to learning time!
Let me clear the ground regarding my position about this: fuck it!
I am grateful to work in a field that I manage to like, but I cannot help but recognize that work time, thanks to its nature of necessity, is very much a burden. I would find a thousand different ways to better spend that time, for me and the world. Nevertheless, I have to recognize that I lack that freedom.
What I can do instead is make use of that time in the most fruitful way, without necessarily damaging the interests of my employer: I do learn during the work time. And I do this without the slightest sense of guilt, because this time spent learning will most probably also benefit my (current or future) employer. So, be it.
And, let us be frank, there is no way to be 100% dedicated to work during the average work day: focus is a harsh mistress. What I do when I am not in the right mood to produce, is to try and absorb something from the grand vastness of the Internet. Sure, sometimes it is a waste of time, but most other times is well worth the diversion.