Frostlike4444

I think you make a good point, and I've seen it echoed a few times in this thread.

It seems like the best way to keep improving is to keep busy. Make things just to make them. Keep trying new things and finding new ways to challenge yourself.

Honestly, this is good advice. While writing this post, I believed that reading textbooks was the most important thing for me to do. I'm glad this isn't necessarily true!

"why do you think the 40+ hours of work you do for your employer every week isn't also helping to improve your skills?"

You're 100% correct here. I'm definitely learning and improving just by doing my normal work. I suppose I worry about how much of that learning will transfer to another job.

"Stick with the industry long enough and you will: (a) get laid off, and (b) watch better engineers get laid off while you don't."

Thank you for the perspective here. I'm probably better off thinking about how I will navigate a lay off, instead of praying it doesn't happen.

Thank you for the reply, and thank you for the link!

I'll take some time to look through that GitHub and pick out some projects to focus on.

Thanks for the reply!

To clarify, when you rank effective strategies you're saying that, for you, books are the least effective and making thing is the most effective?