My strategy has been to think of a project to do, and then to try to match my tech to that. For instance, I picked up a bit of Love2D at LudumDare 34. Sometimes

My strategy has been to think of a project to do, and then to try to match my tech to that. For instance, I picked up a bit of Love2D at LudumDare 34. Sometimes it works in reverse, I wrote a blog engine for junglecoder.com because I wanted to learn Go and the nature of running servers on the web better. But I have also had a lot of time my hands in the past, so YMMV. After a certain point, programming become more about logistics than individual effort. Another good way to prioritize what to learn, especially if you don't have any good ideas, is to follow where the money flows. If you want to make small contract websites, PHP is a decent choice (as much as I'd never choose it myself, but I have taste issues). C# is about the easiest way to get started on windows for just about anything. Elixir seems like a promising tech, especially with what Phoenix has on offer. Programming is time consuming in the real world, unless you're deep in your comfort zone, but that place has often already been automated anyway. This article seems to be a decent approach as well. I like a lot of what James Hauge has to say. http://prog21.dadgum.com/202.html http://prog21.dadgum.com/202.html