Generalist > specialist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3PcdTyZ6w
You have two good skills, median-level among those specializations probably, and combine them into a top-tier niche ability.
Also, did you voluntarily disclose that you thought that comment was about you? It feels like you are the friend they were talking about, lol
That statement seems to somewhat fly against the statement you have unparalleled productivity.
I feel like the way LLMs work involves them allowing you to do things you previously simply couldn't do but doing those tasks involves really a lot of effort at controlling the things. It's compressing "one kind of hard part" (actually writing code is another a hard part that's taken care but articulate/evaluate).
Which is to say, it seems like you're "working harder than you say"
Still, I'm making a living doing this, working less, and have way more control over my own life. My life kind of rules now compared to what it was a year ago.
But I feel "totally disorganized" in the way I'm doing it. I think that may be inevitable since becoming organized is a natural part of doing a project the slow, "old fashioned way" and just orienting oneself to the process can be a significant and inevitable part of the effort.
I don't want to get into the nitty gritty, but I'm kind of at the nexus of tech and aviation with my experience in life. The result has been that I can build tools that directly apply to my customers' requirements and I know wtf I'm doing in the industry. I think if I was "just a dev" or "just a former pilot" I'd be kind of screwed because I wouldn't know what I was doing? But, the reality is that because I know how to do both I'm able to make money. I don't have to look up "what an IAP is" means or "what is the 1-4-1 rule and 2-2-1/2 rule" means or "what is an OpSpec?" frantically when I am figuring out what they need. That's quite helpful.
If you know what the hell you're doing, this is a game changer. Like, "oh, I need a custom CRM spooled up that covers things that aren't in typical CRM software" - if you're a developer you probably don't know what people actually want; if you're just an industry expert you don't know wtf sql is. But if you're kind of blend of both you can add real value.
Generalist > specialist right now. I doubt that holds for much more than about a dozen months or so.