> I don't know you, but I'm paid for the work I produce, I'd be really happy if I could be paid for learning stuff and not doing shit. Your employer does not p

> I don't know you, but I'm paid for the work I produce, I'd be really happy if I could be paid for learning stuff and not doing shit. Your employer does not pay the time you spend on work-related research (or even general research)? Change job. It's part of what programmers do - find solutions to problems, and since most problems we're facing are variations of problems other people already solved research and learning about possible solutions are an important part of our work, I'd even say the most critical part. I'm happy to compensate my employees for that. > which is why non-compete agreements are invalid There's no noncompete clause being discussed here. It's basically a case of "I'm building the same product as at work, just for free" and the guy is making a direct competitor to his employer. Sorry, if one of my employees did build a competing product while being employed here without explicit permission, I'd fire him. If the guy build something mostly unrelated to his work, I'd totally agree with him, but the way this case looks like, no, I'm not.