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That's fair. Your comment would also be better if you quoted me fairly and didn't cut off the second half of my question.

"Everything" and "Everything that would benefit you immediately" are not the same thing. But I don't think there's much to gain from more bickering here, let me just retract my comment.

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That's very civil of you, upvoted. OK, now I can answer. It's all a balance of investment, payback (which can be direct - "gets me a job" - and nebulous life-quality stuff - "that's interesting!") and erm, my lifespan.

I try to make those tradeoffs consciously. If I decide x is valuable but boring, these days I'll measure it against other priorities, if it wins I force myself to do it.

So I try. It's an acquired skill which I'm still working on.

What you call an acquired skill is a heuristic most people do unconsciously.

People always do the right thing and don't dither, don't procrastinate, always evaluate the long term consequences? Sure they do.

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