I think other people also realize this, but my main learnings as a 45 year old software developer are:
That how little college education contributes to success in life. (at least success as I define it). That education became commodity. The real value is in finding the interesting opportunities / ideas / people / networks, the right topics at the right time.
That my knowledge and way of thinking is still too 'academical'. (although I am constantly working on this.)
That beyond a level big-picture thinking is more important than being good in details, I need to progess in this front a lot.
That scratching your own itch is the best startup walidation method: but me as a software developer have mostly developer problems. Creating developer tools is a hard business, but I could not find out a better alternative for myself yet. (I am also a gamer a little bit, but indie games are an even tougher business.)
That living in Eastern Europe is bad for your career but the upside is that you can live really well off of a (by western standards) relatively low income.
That how little college education contributes to success in life. (at least success as I define it). That education became commodity. The real value is in finding the interesting opportunities / ideas / people / networks, the right topics at the right time. That my knowledge and way of thinking is still too 'academical'. (although I am constantly working on this.) That beyond a level big-picture thinking is more important than being good in details, I need to progess in this front a lot. That scratching your own itch is the best startup walidation method: but me as a software developer have mostly developer problems. Creating developer tools is a hard business, but I could not find out a better alternative for myself yet. (I am also a gamer a little bit, but indie games are an even tougher business.) That living in Eastern Europe is bad for your career but the upside is that you can live really well off of a (by western standards) relatively low income.