This is what I want to do. By far my favorite roles in my career have been when I get to work with deep domain experts in some research-oriented niche. I'm in one of these right now (in the clean energy space) and it's awesome. It's very motivating for me to collaborate with them and build tooling to accelerate their work.
But it also makes me feel that, even though I'm in my late 30s, when I grow up, those people I love working with are who I want to be.
It may or may not prove to be unrealistic, but my plan is, after my kids are a bit older and we have saved a bit more liquid assets and have refinanced to a lower mortgage payment, to enter a graduate program for something interesting, and maybe keep working on software part time while I do that.
But it also makes me feel that, even though I'm in my late 30s, when I grow up, those people I love working with are who I want to be.
It may or may not prove to be unrealistic, but my plan is, after my kids are a bit older and we have saved a bit more liquid assets and have refinanced to a lower mortgage payment, to enter a graduate program for something interesting, and maybe keep working on software part time while I do that.