I am actually paid by my employer to do 5 hours of training per week. It's required and I am allowed to study anything I want, whether it's a new framework or a self-improvement book.
I usually spend that time studying something that I think may be useful or related to my job but I have been encouraged to explore. My employer is a big believer that innovation comes from exploration.
As you pointed out, it is an infinite endeavor. I'm okay with that. If I just stuck with the current technologies that were used when I first came in, we'd probably still be using jQuery and .ERB templates. Instead I personally pushed for using new technologies and my team is personally responsible for introducing Vue, Typescript, and GraphQL to our stack among other technologies.
I usually spend that time studying something that I think may be useful or related to my job but I have been encouraged to explore. My employer is a big believer that innovation comes from exploration.
As you pointed out, it is an infinite endeavor. I'm okay with that. If I just stuck with the current technologies that were used when I first came in, we'd probably still be using jQuery and .ERB templates. Instead I personally pushed for using new technologies and my team is personally responsible for introducing Vue, Typescript, and GraphQL to our stack among other technologies.