Yeah, without in any way to disclaim a rather privileged background, and without every really being outside of a engineering-adjacent space, I have had a very twisty turny path. And I don't think that's at all uncommon for a lot of people with a long career.

I think a lot of people here assume a fairly linear SWE progression beginning with a CS degree but that's not the norm for a lot of people who work in the computer industry in various roles even that didn't involve wholesale career shifts.