I don’t know why this is phrased as a dichotomy. You can work on a good codebase with good people and read books. You can also be in a less than ideal situation

I don’t know why this is phrased as a dichotomy. You can work on a good codebase with good people and read books. You can also be in a less than ideal situation and at least read books. Unless these books are actively hurting you, which is pretty unlikely imo, it’s not a bad idea to read them.