Career Linux/Unix guy since the early 2000s with a high school diploma here. If you love tech, can wear a button-up shirt, and chew with your mouth closed, you can go into tech sales. Where you can make 2 to 10x the money while traveling the world and get to do just as much or more cool tech stuff than you do today.

I used to pull cables and rack servers while getting paid shit and working stupid late hours. For the last 10+ years I've done some of the best tech work of my career while eating Nobu and never paying for a hotel or flight when I go on vacation.

And don't say some BS like that only worked for people that got into tech early. I've been the tech screener for applicants for years. We hire plenty of people from Gen z to boomers. We've had $200k+ jobs sit empty for over a year.