I try to work on what I find most interesting, and am capable of doing. Stuff like single photon path distance stuff and LIDAR is really cool, and no doubt I co

I try to work on what I find most interesting, and am capable of doing. Stuff like single photon path distance stuff and LIDAR is really cool, and no doubt I could spend the whole weekend reading about it, but that's not easily within reach given my background (could be wrong). However, there are topics that are closely related to my job skills, and if I push hard on them I should be able to move my career in that direction. I'm a backend engineer, so topics like compilers, distributed systems, or databases are what I'm most interested in. All really cool tech that have deep academic domains and rich histories and very technical implementations. My general approach is to take tiny steps in the direction I want to go everyday, ie, use the power of habit. This has several advantages, but mostly it's just easier for me if studying is a habit. Right now, that means doing a LeetCode problem every day to stay sharp for job interviews, reading about databases, and starting a new project where I implement a database myself, probably in Rust, so I need to learn Rust as well. I do generally agree that there isn't enough time to spend on what you want, and work takes up way too much time, but in my experience accepting your limitations and learning to live a balanced life with devotion to tech interests and hobbies has been essential to staying healthy. Put another way, I don't want a crazy job where I grind it out for 65+ hours a week and burn out in 11 months, burn out is very unhealthy for me. Instead, my philosophy is one of sustainable daily movement, setting myself up for working not 2 more years, but 20.