"The most common reason why these mid career people have stopped developing at work appears to be that they are well experienced while their peers are not" Eve

"The most common reason why these mid career people have stopped developing at work appears to be that they are well experienced while their peers are not" Everyone's different, but I used to spend a lot of my free time in the evenings and weekends hacking on side projects, learning the odd new tool or language, etc. Now I spend them wiping vomit off my back, cleaning crap off of underwear, reading bedtime stories, singing songs, and making crafts. The side project time has gone down a lot. However, it means I might be less competitive than others as time goes on.