In my own experience, which I'd recommend you disregard if it isn't useful for you.
Try lots of things, see if something sticks, it might take years, or decades, but the variety of trying many things is interesting in itself.
Try to connect the dots in your own life, for example what were you like as a kid, what interested you, has any of this followed into your adult life, what about looking forwards e.g. where do you want to be 30 years from now and can your current or new interests get you there.
Having kids will certainly give a person purpose and eat up all of that free time if that's in the plan for you.
What a range of really interesting responses in this thread, thanks for taking the time to post. In 10 years I'll be approaching a milestone age (like I am now). I hope to still be an active father for my kids, to have enough money and investments to feel financially comfortable, to be pursuing more of my interests than work.
I got a Masters in Software Development, part time evenings, studied over 3 years. I don't think it's strictly necessary, but in my experience, it doesn't harm your prospects. I think it's nice to have the combination of experience and education, personally. Certainly don't underestimate the commitment if you study in your spare time. Also, you may enjoy the course, work on new things, meet new people - all can be valuable in their own right.
Congratulations on launching, great idea. Can I ask you about AWS lambda for the email sending. Did you integrate with a third party email service, or node mailer, or just a Gmail (I believe they get throttled at 500 emails per day). Or does AWS send the emails? I'm working on a project that needs emails to go automatically and I'm not sure on the best implementation yet, I'm leaning towards the Gmail option but don't want to hit the limit. Thanks
