These aren't, in my view, necessarily orthogonal. I recently had a big, ambiguous project on my plate where I had to learn some new technologies. I had a good t

These aren't, in my view, necessarily orthogonal. I recently had a big, ambiguous project on my plate where I had to learn some new technologies. I had a good time making toy prototypes of the system I would eventually end up building. It was my off hours, it furthered my work, and it was fun and fulfilling for me. The best is when your work gives you ambiguous problems that feel like side projects you'd normally want to do anyways.