I've done the same thing but at this point I've probably sent out job email inquiries in the 1000's ( plus I'm in my later 30's ). The narrative of someone bein

I've done the same thing but at this point I've probably sent out job email inquiries in the 1000's ( plus I'm in my later 30's ). The narrative of someone being a nobody to super-hero is nice but keep in mind those stories have a tendency to blur reality. In short, you don't hear about the failures, the grit, the work and the more human costs of getting out of a bad situation. My advice is not to let your mind get locked into thinking that you must 'be a dev'. What you need to do is continue to develop your skill palette and explore what exists for that palette. You might end up doing things that use your programming abilities daily of which is not a 'dev' role. Currently I'm doing some work where I research something technical and then do tutorial videos for it. I'm barley getting by but this is an area I'm kind of good at because I know what it feels like to know absolutely nothing hence I try and explain things as simply and as 'to-the-root' as possible. If you like making things with computers you're always going to do it. The question is how to bend your own interests to fit with the economic order in a manner where you're on the beneficiary end of it. I'll leave by encouraging you to check a book called "Mastery" by Robert Greene.