Saw a post with that subject.
I don't know. I went to graduate school for my doctoral in CS and did some research; wrote some papers; thought of some algorithms. Went to industry as a programmer ("software designer"); became a software architect that did not code; wrote a book; became a "Senior Technical Architect" that managed only projects and people; got fed up with not coding, and became a programmer again; joined a startup, coded all the way up to be a coding vice president; started working for myself when the startup was sold. I am going to be 48 soon, and I just finished a 2000-odd-class logistics SaaS from scratch, after finishing three systems currently being used in different companies as a freelancer in the last few years, all from scratch.
I think I started to understand the essence of programming after I was 40. And I also started to understand better how to handle databases within a Java application.
It is all abut what you want to do with your life. Career schmareer. In my death bed, I just want to be able to say to myself: "oh boy, that was a fun ride". That is it.
