I'm 40. Some of my work I get through my network, for sure. But I'm picky about what I work on which means that I will often do business development for myself

I'm 40. Some of my work I get through my network, for sure. But I'm picky about what I work on which means that I will often do business development for myself and actively cold call/hustle to scare up work in the area I prefer to be in. Strange for a dev, I know, but it's definitely been worth it for me. I also like to take a lot of time off between contracts to give myself time to pursue non-dev activities and finding the right balance is hard without actively developing my clients. For instance I'm finishing up a contract right now that was a green field build-out of a brand new product using Elixir. The only way to find that stuff (unless you're lucky) is to go out and dig it up.