[schmookeeg]

I sort of fell backwards into it about 5 years ago -- in the "Give it to Mike, he'll try anything" sense -- I inherited some mangled Jupyter notebook filled with health data, and nobody could make the model work out. Once I figured out the white paper and algorithm they were trying to rip off, it was easy enough to implement and host out as a PKL file with Fast API.

That's sort of what I've been doing since. It's much more interesting than solving botched up React Hooks, but there is about the same ratio of tedium:interesting work. I happen to like math, someone who does not like math... they're gonna go a little batty I think.

I haven't even raised my rates. I'm having enough fun with it.

So I think the answer you're after is either "Luck" or "Masochistic streak" ? :)