Amateurs train until they get it right. Professionals train until they can't get it wrong.
So if your company hands you an hour of training a month, and the whole price of admission is eating lunch at your desk, take it. Jump on it with both feet and steel cleats. Grab it and don't let go.
I want to be clear about what's actually on the table, because I think most people walk right past it.
The company paid a presenter to build that talk. The company paid somebody else to find a room, wrangle a dozen calendars, and get the thing on the schedule. And the only thing the company asks for in return is that you eat your lunch while you learn.
I've been in tech more than forty years. That is not normal. That is not how most of this industry works.
Most companies decide it's your job to build the skills they need on your own time and your own dime. They'll put the requirement in the job posting. They'll ask about it in the interview. They'll pass you over for the promotion when you don't have it. They just won't pay for the classroom. The tab for staying current lands on you, quietly, every single year, and nobody ever says it out loud.
So when somebody else picks up that tab, showing up is not a favor you're doing them.
Now, the objection. I've heard it from other people and I've used it myself. "I'm too busy. I've got a deadline."
Of course you are. We're all busy. We've all got that one last line of code we need to squeeze in before we look up. And you always will be busy. There has never been a month in my career where the pace of change got slower. Not one. It always got busier.
Which means there is no better time coming. It won't be easier next week. It won't be easier next month. It will just be that much later.
Nobody hands you the hour. You take it, or you don't get it. And that deadline you protected by skipping? It gets replaced by another deadline in three weeks. The skill you skipped is still missing.
I spent fifteen years in the PHP community, on both sides of the podium. Hundreds of sessions, learning and teaching.
And honestly, I can't name you the one that made the difference. Not one. I've tried, and I've had a lot of years to come up with an answer. But that's not how training works. Training is incremental. You layer new skills on top of the old ones, and you practice the old ones over and over... until you can't get them wrong.
Which is exactly why it's so easy to skip. No single hour ever looks like it was worth it.
So do the training arithmetic.
An hour a month is twelve hours a year. Twelve hours is a rounding error against a working year. Nobody's career was ever damaged by twelve hours.
But twelve hours a year for a decade is a different person. You won't be able to point at the hour that did it. You'll just look back at who you used to be and barely recognize that person.
An hour is nothing. Ten years of hours is a career.
Originally posted on LinkedIn: "Training Arithmetic"