being self taught, learning is just part of what I do, to me it's as natural and as necessary as breathing.

Need to make one thing clear though. I do it for me. .Net 4 parallelisation, shiny new interesting challenging and useful.

VB6, dull, old, boring, irritating and as career enhancing as taking a crap in your bosses bin.

So they pay for it, and I do it on their dime.