It's still way more of a meritocracy than many other disciplines. In what other field can you get an upper-echelon salary via non-credentialed routes like open-

It's still way more of a meritocracy than many other disciplines. In what other field can you get an upper-echelon salary via non-credentialed routes like open-source projects and blogs? Btw, you don't need to create an OSS project from scratch. You could also get visibility by making important contributions to an existing one.