[solraph]

I'm somewhere between two and three decades in the field.

> when I'm going to either stop cutting myself on things

Never. You (should) get better at recognising some of the themes and danger signs, but the field evolves so fast that at some point you are going to work with something so new that literally nobody knows what the sharp edges are.

> land a position with some people who can show me their cool scars for a while.

Meetups, slack, discord, IRC, forums. Find the one that works for you and be a regular. Be an expert in one subject and be modest and willing to learn when it comes to others. Nobody has it all figured out.