You already made products with real users, and you have committed focus time. Knowing what to build, convincing someone they want something, and actually executing on it isn't easy.
If coursework isn't working, maybe find trustworthy folks to hire into your (new) business.
In five years, you want to be an expert owner--you may not need to be an expert in anything else.
That reframe is useful — "expert owner" versus "expert engineer" hadn't occurred to me quite so directly. I do want to understand the technical side well enough to not be dependent on anyone, AI or human, to make decisions I don't understand. But you're right that the ceiling on what I can build rises dramatically if I stop thinking I have to do everything myself. Worth thinking about where that line sits. Thanks for the perspective.
I skimmed what you said, software needs a lot of enthusiasm. With that said, the brutal honesty is this. Build useful software and the rest will follow, this ai coding is open source software on steroids, though there may be a paid subscription to an ai that your getting this excitement from. Over time excitement fades, because its one error that needs fixing that went kerplunk, because the ai tries but programming know-how is at the conundrum of getting things done, or shape vibe statements to the extent of from idea to implementation complete and then some. The fact that you admit you dont know how to code, and many say this in a new wave of users is, so your honesty is the brutal cold, when others cut their britches learning how to code for years formally at colleges and universities that cost a lot of money is quite bitter now that, hey, look what I can do, I can't code, but I can write paragraphs of text to write code I dont comprehend is like, someone who can drive a car as far as how to safely operate the vehicle such as what a driver license is intended to indicate, its a big so what. Though this is on a massive global scale, so economies are such that enthusiasm rises while oligrachicaly use of AI may get a few diamonds of eagerness to income. This simply takes of an enthusiastic vibe coder. The questions of what is occurring in software, why, and who benefits endeavors. I ask the question of myself, what of me is to happen being that I've tried for quite some time to find work in the software industry to find the coldness of the industry that seems to be an oligarchical extent of chaos. Ask yourself this, what do lawyers do to their profession to profit and keep prices sufficient and why. What do doctors, nurses do, or for that matter any profession and why. Then ask yourself, what do software professionals do, or are doing, or are being getting it done to them, and why. Still looking for work here, where's the greatness for me too. The silently eager, enthused, and educated await the answer.
I hear the frustration, and I think it's legitimate. You've put in years of formal work and the industry hasn't rewarded that fairly — that's a real problem worth being angry about, and it's not something I've had to face. I'm not going to pretend that building things with AI without formal knowledge is the same as what you've done. It isn't. The question your lawyer analogy raises is an honest one — professions that survive do so by protecting the value of deep expertise. I genuinely don't know how software settles that question as AI changes what "building" means. I'm figuring out where I fit in that picture, same as you seem to be. I hope you find what you're looking for.