Where Do You Find the Time?

I had lunch with a couple of colleagues on the lecture circuit today and after they asked me what I was working on (Genghis, the Web Services DevCon in October, ref-counting for Rotor, a few books, some consulting, etc), they asked where I found the time. Here’s how:

1. I work with a *ton* of very talented folks. The following are just the ones I’m remembering off the top of my head that I’ve been working with lately: Chris Tavares, Brad Wilson, Shawn Van Ness, Jon Flanders, Don Box, Tim Ewald, all the Web Services DevCon speakers and staff, all the Genghis contributors, Tim Tabor, Michael Weinhardt, Microsoft, Dharma Shukla, Brian Harry, Chris Andersen, Mark Boulter, and, of course, all of my former DevelopMentor brethren.
    
2. But most importantly, I don’t attend meetings or request vacations or approve vacations or attend meetings or receive reviews or give reviews or attend meetings (did I already say that?) or do any of the other things that employees have to do. Skipping these activities easily doubles or triples my productivity. Of course, I had to give up the steady paycheck to make it happen and it’s not the life for everyone, but it works for me just fine. : )

Real software engineering has so little to do with actual technology, it’s kinda sad. I’m lucky. I only have to do the technology part. My question is, how do people with full-time jobs find the time to learn the technology?