I don't know, most professionals I know spend at least some of their "free" time (or at least the time they spend at home) reading journals or publications. Th

I don't know, most professionals I know spend at least some of their "free" time (or at least the time they spend at home) reading journals or publications. The idea of a profession is that one is not generally paid by the hour for "work" even if one bills a client by the hour so time spent on professional development whenever it takes place is part of work and covered by a salary rather than a wage. Of course it might be true that other professions do less non-billable practical work though this is probably more due to the fact that programming doesn't require a significant budget. The issue I think is one that many companies want programmers to work more like wage laborers and take care of the professional side for themselves. For example a law firm is probably more likely to allocate budget for associates to use for professional development than an IT contracting company.