[UweSchmidt]

A hacker might be the modern independent scholar. You can follow your tech curiosity, self-study and work on your own little projects and be intellectually and creatively rewarded.

Start anywhere, any programming tutorial, or any arduino project recipe. Get immersed and always figure out how the stuff really works. You are most likely smart enough to do it.

If employment is an issue, well, what you learned from the above should take you at least halfway to a job and probably make your career better.

[vsareto]

Interestingly, John Carmack talked about doing a “gentleman scientist” approach with AI