I'm a firm believer in learn-by-doing. Take a look at these stats: Learning Retention Rates: - Listening only - After 3 hours: 70% - After 3 days: 10% -

I'm a firm believer in learn-by-doing. Take a look at these stats: Learning Retention Rates: - Listening only - After 3 hours: 70% - After 3 days: 10% - Seeing or Observing only - After 3 hours: 72% - After 3 days: 20% - Hearing and Seeing / Observing - After 3 hours: 85% - After 3 days: 65% - Doing - After 3 hours: 95% - After 3 days: 90% As you can clearly see, nothing comes close to the amount of information you actually retain by doing. You should try to connect your passion to learning new skills. For me, I did this by working on personal projects that used the newest web technologies that related to my interests (horticulture, education, biotech). I quickly became proficient in those technologies and became a resource for other developers in my organization. My career accelerated and I rose from junior javascript developer to chief software architect before I was 25.