[gardenfelder]

It seems to me...

There may be at least two forks in the road - take one of them.

Consider this: you can continue to improve a) your skills and knowledge and b) software engineering itself.

Or, you can use what you know and are learning to help fix the planet, by which I mean: look around: political polarization prevents finding solutions to massive, urgent, and wicked problems - problems made wicked because society has forgotten how to collaborate. Do we need WWIII to bring us together? Do we need complete collapse of some major region due to climate change to bring us together? Or, can we, as software engineers, scientists, and human beings use our massive and growing skills and knowledge to help society sort things out?

Couple of forks in the road. Pick one.