I read a bit of this and sort of just glazed over

The fact is that people have never been that impressed by job titles, at least not in my lifetime

No one's ever been like "oh wow you're a software engineer? That's so incredible"

Mostly if they're impressed, it's because it pays well and they assume I'm pretty rich

I'm not. I do really well compared to my peers, yes, but ultimately I'm still living the same kind of middle class lifestyle my parents had while my Dad worked at a tool store and my Mom worked part time at nonprofits