> To take the initial premise of this and go in a different direction, maybe the problem isn't "Why aren't people improving themselves outside of work hours?" b

> To take the initial premise of this and go in a different direction, maybe the problem isn't "Why aren't people improving themselves outside of work hours?" but instead "How do we help people do 'professional development' within work hours?". This sounds great, but you're going to need a very supportive manager who thinks that spending work time on professional development is more useful than doing the work that you're capable of that's right in front of you. Companies and workers are fundamentally not aligned wrt professional development unless the labor market cannot provide enough trained folks with specific desired skills. People starting companies can build the company culture they want, but unless the company lands on a gold mine, this kind of thing will probably get cut. This is the same argument we get about how companies should invest more in training rather than expecting the labor market to provide. Without a way to capture the value of that training, they have very little incentive to do so. So, while this definitely does benefit people who have easier life situations, I don't really see this changing.