What or Who do you find yourself envying specifically?
Im very poor atm but, honestly, i dont envy others. Im pretty happy with what I’ve been able to learn or pickup and I feel the meaning of that famous saying where Kings dread tomorrow and the Poor rejoice in their future relief. I enjoy the insane curiosity I developed and get to practice everyday with Lemmy stuff…
Perhaps not. There’s a third path for high end IT growth without going into management: Consulting
Its possible to have a particular specialty which would earn you more than a company could regularly pay for a full time W-2 position. This means you could either work for a consulting company getting months long or year long contracts for project based work using your skills, or you could hang your own shingle and sell yourself in the consulting world on your own. Its a different way of working, but if your skillset is compatible with it, it can be lucrative. It also means managing your own finances differently because you can be in “boom” and “bust” times. You’ll have to build your warchest of funds to weather cyclical downturns in the business world.
It also means you can continue to grow your technical skills and salary without having to go into management. Warning: if you are successful, you can see and even more lucrative path with managing your own consulting company.