I'm inclined to agree with your sentiment here. My degrees are in earth sciences and engineering. What I do day to day is apply the principles of these things,

I'm inclined to agree with your sentiment here. My degrees are in earth sciences and engineering. What I do day to day is apply the principles of these things, are they are relevant to my field, to the role that I'm in at a technical level. In fact, many of my peers and colleagues are in a similar situation. Some of the top software in the couple of industries I either am / have been across is not written purely by those with CS degrees and are full of raw talent. 50-80% of the workforce are those that have other skills first, and can also do a good job with code - and the CS guys make it elegant and work. A geologist / environmental engineer / geotechnical engineer / fire scientist / ecologist will guide and help write PoC, others make sure the PoC fits, and the CS guys make sure it performs. Not everything is a Silicon Valley darling that fits the echo chamber template we constantly see on HN (This is an incubator / startup funds news feed after all!!). To OP: You got in to this for a reason, and are likely good at it. If you need perspective, now might be a good time to check out what other options you have, gain some perspective, spot some holes in whatever fields those options might exist, then start filling those holes in with your coding ability. Now you're working for you (at least partially), might be able to turn that into income (if it's novel enough), and still get to indulge your passion of writing code.