I won't oversell myself. I am now in management, and have many close friends who are better programmers than I am, both generalist and specialized!

Because of the era, I was able to be the lead engineer (as a freelance consultant) at a number of startup companies which tragically no longer exist (for reasons of product-market-fit or product-channel-fit). Eventually I started my own, which is a B2B2C marketplace, a blend of ecommerce and event bookings. So the largest project is "a whole darn company that has survived a decade", including a near-death experience from COVID. From a technical perspective, it is not a very interesting project ;) People at Shopify or Eventbrite have seen more technical complexity in both spaces than I have.

While we use AI for many internal processes, we aren't doing anything particularly cutting-edge in the product itself. It's mostly about brand strategy, market alignment, and customer experience. My day-to-day is sometimes technical, but mostly management. And that's the trap, yeah? You get good at something you enjoy, and then you find out that there's more money in doing something different, helping other people do the thing you used to enjoy.

I apologize if that is not a satisfying answer. I am grateful for the very unique university experience I lucked into, but I am no savant.