I agree regarding solving problems especially on the real world problem for yourself or your own immediate pain points. I got sucked into a small side project for one of my spouse's clients and although I learned a lot from it, my desire to take my time and really learn and apply deeper aspects of design affected delivery. Not a huge deal since the client is getting it for free and I will eventually find a maintainer, but when I want to swap techA with techB just for the sake of self-interest, I have to think twice since I would be doing so at someone else's expense. Perhaps I should be more cautious when my spouse pimps me out! :)