The "side project" culture is a by-product of not having a standardized approach to professional development in software engineering. Doctors, teachers, and pil

The "side project" culture is a by-product of not having a standardized approach to professional development in software engineering. Doctors, teachers, and pilots are all expected to refresh their skills, and their time to do this is baked into their salary. Software engineers need to do the same, but it's not baked into their salary, so they have to do it independently. You wouldn't pay a tax preparer for his time spent learning this year's tax laws, but you also wouldn't hire him if he didn't. So his hourly rate has to include the time that he will spend off-the-clock learning about the new laws that year. Software engineers should do the same, and treat their on-the-clock time as only one of the components of maintaining their professional readiness.