Make it official. Grant him/her a number of hours (of course on his/her own expense) per day. Developers that have projects of their own are usually the best ones. An alternative is to hire him/her as a freelancer. Will cost a bit more, but all invoiced hours will be truly productive. I work in a construction like that myself. Doing the same thing each and every day the whole day is just to much for me. Diversity in my work keeps me productive. Working hours can be checked, output quality is much harder to check. Having said this all, workers should be honest. Working on private project in company hours without agreement on this is unacceptable. Trust is a requirement for any work relationship. J. de Hooge www.transcrypt.org

I think the future for Python dev's is bright. But I would learn C++ in addition, since the two wear well together.

I use it routinely for: Medical imaging Real time controls Scientific computations Websites Fun JdeH

No, Tabi, don't worry, nothing wrong with that. I remember my first programs, some 40 years ago. Took my hours and hours for almost nothing. I've earned a living with programming upto now. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but that doesn't mean you're not going to be good at it. JdeH

Internet has put the power to produce and distribute software into the hands of everyone. The result is an enormously diverse and intense activity. There's organic chaos, sometimes leading to beautiful solutions. It's evolution at work, and we' re going through the Cambric explosion. It isn't bad, it isn't good, it's just natural. And indeed, there's less time than before to delve deeply into something. Therefore its important for developers to take some 20% of their time to study something durable in depth: a mainstream language, some fundamental algorithm, some classical concurrency problem. I've been programming for over 42 years now and I can tell you those things are durable investments. I can use knowledge like that with any technology, no matter how new. And sometimes I take the time do do something thoroughly, just for fun, making my own contribution to biodiversity... Jacques de Hooge http://www.transcrypt.org