I’m in my 50’s in the North East in the US. I did a little college but it also was not for me. Interesting that you mention “actual job setting with stakes”,

I’m in my 50’s in the North East in the US. I did a little college but it also was not for me. Interesting that you mention “actual job setting with stakes”, that was my exact problem with college - my brain doesn’t like to work on artificial problems that have no point. I have worked as a senior dev, architect and technology strategist for over three decades. The lack of degree almost never has come up. I started in pure tech, then was in capital markets for many years, where ability matters a lot more than academics. Note that you have to be an autodidact for this to work. You have to be able to learn a lot on your own. This is a big problem for many, many people who need a structured learning environment to understand a topic. It is also somewhat unique to software developers and related roles.