I've been doing this for over 20 years. I think my major leaps have been - Contracting. New workplace approx every 2 years avg, I got to work with some really

I've been doing this for over 20 years. I think my major leaps have been - Contracting. New workplace approx every 2 years avg, I got to work with some really talented people which I sought to spend my time with as much as possible and learn from them. - Personal project. I may be contracting on .NET but geeking at home on Python. I may be contracting on PHP but doing SwiftUI at home. I make games, software, tinker on other stuff. Basically widen your scope, explore by doing. If you want to be in the top 10% of any field, the key is to be willing to go further than 90% of the field. And the beauty of this ever-changing industry, is that you have no idea where that's going to lead you.