Both of the statements in the title are false. Programming is like the ultimate toybox. Getting started with a new tool can be like Christmas. It doesn't hurt t

Both of the statements in the title are false. Programming is like the ultimate toybox. Getting started with a new tool can be like Christmas. It doesn't hurt to reward yourself every now and then especially when there is often a real advantage provided by the new tool. Obviously you can't spend all of your energy on that but it doesn't mean it can't be routine to try out and apply new things. Mastery of tools is also not a useful primary objective. In fact, in the modern era of software development, it's counterproductive. Because it will not leave you time to try any of the new stuff that could be a more more efficient way to make that particular type of software. I would say that a professional software engineering approach is to focus on delivering business value. That means you need to emphasize understanding the business problem and iterating on features that solve that. To be effective those things should take some precedence over other activities, like learning new tools or mastering old ones.