But you're living in US. In US you got paid crazy salaries for programming. Why do you work at failed startups? Just get some job with crazy salary, work there for 5 years and then retire.
>> paid crazy salaries for programming
may be it's difficult to go through the typical interview loops for such jobs as they are not designed to be inclusive for ND etc despite all the diversity and inclusion BS (more often than not) at such workplaces.
My struggles were largely due to moving back to the city nearest to where I grew up after college, which wasn't a tech hub for 20 years, although it's becoming one now. So I've been on a career odyssey. Now most of what I know is obsolete, but I'm having a hard time adapting to my new reality after so many decades of negative reinforcement. I agree with Paul Graham about moving to where the energy is. Network effects are everything.