> I work on side projects. I'm intrigued this is here, because when I read the title this was my immediate suggestion. In my experience there's no better way

> I work on side projects. I'm intrigued this is here, because when I read the title this was my immediate suggestion. In my experience there's no better way to learn than working on side projects that explore technologies that you don't already know. Is this what you do? Writing an app on the same framework/languages as you use at work is also definitely valuable, it'll give you more depth of knowledge that's then directly applicable at work (in fact when starting a new job I recommend doing exactly this) but it won't stretch you much intellectually. To do that you kind of have to force yourself to use completely new stuff.