> OP sounds like the ideal employee who works 8 hours, then spends 4 more hours/weekends learning and working at home.

Be careful of calling this an ideal employee.

I, for example, tend to have a little bit of such a schedule, but what I work on at home is so much more exciting, making the job much more frustrating in comparison. Also, one is typically not allowed (or it is not possible) to apply all the really good ideas that one tested/implemented for the home projects at work.

Thus, the kind of employees who apply such a pattern are often very, very passionate about programming - but this kind of passion often makes them

- more frustrated at work (i.e. they might be cynical),

- less subservient (they often know better - from their "night work" - that a requirement makes no sense, and may be vocal about it),

- very opinionated about their "technological taste", not necessarily fitting the technological taste that the employer would love to see in the work (they have seen a lot more programming techniques).

Yeah ideal employee indeed. Learning things at home to add value to the employer.

But the skill and experience stick with you for lifetime.

One thing I've learned: We all give the same execuse, "Not enough time". The two biggest I hear is working out and meditation.

You have all the time in the world, what you don't have is priorities.