The biggest perk of software engineering is that you can literally create something from nothing, and that something can have enough value for someone to pay yo

The biggest perk of software engineering is that you can literally create something from nothing, and that something can have enough value for someone to pay you. The barrier to entry is basically zero, assuming you already own a computer (and if you don't, you'll need that computer for other things anyway, so it won't be a waste even if you do not end up pursuing software engineering as a career). Beyond software engineering jobs, having those skills means you can easily build all kinds of services and put them out there for prospective customers to buy. You can also automate your own repetitive, annoying and boring shit instead of spending time doing it manually or paying someone else (or a service) to do so. Besides making software products, software engineering expertise will also help you make other jobs more efficient, sometimes automating them away. If shit hits the fan and developers are no longer in demand and selling software products/services doesn’t work out, you can just look for any kind of computer-based, repetitive job such as data entry and automate it away.