Can I reasonably make a living being self taught in 2026?
For context, I am in the process of teaching myself Node.js. I stopped going to classes/dropped out of college in the middle of a semester at 20 for reasons unrelated to academics, and am now 24, regrettably with debt, so going back is not an option unless I am prepared to pay big money (based in US, sadly) *and* retake classes I stopped going to for the sake of my gpa (i am not.) At the same time, I am also not willing to change my desired career path. I am aware that, at this point in time, the web dev job market is extremely competitive- let alone without a degree. Let's say I go freelance, though- I make games, monetized websites, etc. I'd essentially be skipping the competitiveness of the field I may virtually have no shot at in one sense, though I understand that the consumer market can be incredibly volatile as well. Would it be reasonably more feasible than trying to go through the job market though? If not, is there a route I could take that will see this through for me, perhaps by means of creating unique and adequate enough portfolio projects that show my competence in order to stand a better chance within the job market?