It's probably worth pointing out that basing custom prices upon a buyer's perceived value of the item rather than the item's cost of production will usually generate higher levels of profit.
I would try to come up with a project that you can focus upon. Whether it's writing a book or learning to sail, you'll be less likely to feel untethered. Also, you'll be able to look back and appreciate the time you had off.
One surefire way I've seen is to work at a company in which your bosses keep quitting. I've seen people jump from IC to VP over the course of a handful of years.
Another is to start a startup and then get acquihired into a large company.
Don't start by thinking what languages you know. Most projects are not limited y language. Start by thinking about what problems you (or someone else) has.
The world doesn't need another RSS aggregator. The world might need another RSS aggregator that is fundamentally different than the others. For instance, one that gives me an alert if one of my selected keywords appears in one of my feeds or one that uses AI to predict which of the unread articles is most likely to be of interest to me, and makes a list of them.
It's probably worth pointing out that basing custom prices upon a buyer's perceived value of the item rather than the item's cost of production will usually generate higher levels of profit.