Not only that, but when you are programming for yourself, you can take on practically infinite risk. There is no downside. When you are programming for the company, you have to err on the side of conservatism. Sometimes the only way to break through to another level is to take on that risk and see how it turns out. It says a lot about a programmer that their portfolios consist of lots of efforts that don't end up with a "product". They have tried a lot of stuff that you can't reasonably try in a work setting.