As an alternative view, I cannot strongly enough suggest to get an academic degree if you can afford the time and money. Self-directed learning is ok if that's

As an alternative view, I cannot strongly enough suggest to get an academic degree if you can afford the time and money. Self-directed learning is ok if that's the best you can do, but having the structure of an academic setting is absolutely invaluable. You'll immersed in an environment where those around you are doing the same thing, and the value from discussing difficult concepts with others is impossible to overstate. Self-directed learning will put you in a bubble of the overhyped web technologies. What is extremely hard to understand from the outside is that there's an ENORMOUS hidden level of much more interesting problems and work in fundamental engineering. But it doesn't get discussed online much, because it's more difficult to get into, and there's no point arguing with people online when they don't have the background to participate. Happy to discuss my thoughts further if you have questions