[gte910h]

> I lack 'deep', real knowledge and am desperate to acquire this mythical stuff before it's too late.

I mean, there are books on this stuff? Read them, do their exercises, and you will be fine.

I will say, most of this stuff now functions mostly as mind training. The specifics about low level computer systems, Big (O), parsing and compilers is the only part I see repeated use in my day to day.

>So knowing this, how would I best use say 8-12 hours a day, every day, to learn this stuff?

You should audit courses at a CS program taught near you. This stuff is chunky and the books are designed mostly for a classroom setting