Welcome! I definitively feel your struggle because I was there a few years ago. When I started this journey a few years ago it just seemed daunting and impossible but I remember telling myself: "people do this and I am 'people' so I do meet the minimum requirements!"
I agree with other comments here that it seems like you might be stuck in a tutorial loop. Do start building something, a small project for yourself. I've had the privilege of mentoring a few people and it is almost always when building something, not when "learning" that the actual learning and insights and aha moments happen.
Getting a mentor or coding in a community can be invaluable. We all learn differently and build mental models to understand stuff. (I'm down for helping in any way :-) email on profile)
But if you really want this don't give up!
Another thing that sometimes can get starters stuck is a false idea that engineers have some sort of privileged mind (some would like to think so) but in reality we are all people from all places and genders and backgrounds and think about things in wildly different ways! So don't try to become some idealized and maybe non-existent ideal engineer, but just grow yourself with this new skills and do what works for you!
You mentioned that you have done some R and Python, and your comment about math seems to suggest that the use of those might have been in data science-y fashion?
It could also help to decide _what_ type of software engineering you'd like to do. This could help you clear up a bit of confusion because there's A LOT in software engineering...
>So don't try to become some idealized and maybe non-existent ideal engineer, but just grow yourself with this new skills and do what works for you!
I never considered this, so this is appreciated, and so is the help. I will send you an email for sure.
>You mentioned that you have done some R and Python, and your comment about math seems to suggest that the use of those might have been in data science-y fashion?
I agree with other comments here that it seems like you might be stuck in a tutorial loop. Do start building something, a small project for yourself. I've had the privilege of mentoring a few people and it is almost always when building something, not when "learning" that the actual learning and insights and aha moments happen.
Getting a mentor or coding in a community can be invaluable. We all learn differently and build mental models to understand stuff. (I'm down for helping in any way :-) email on profile)
But if you really want this don't give up!
Another thing that sometimes can get starters stuck is a false idea that engineers have some sort of privileged mind (some would like to think so) but in reality we are all people from all places and genders and backgrounds and think about things in wildly different ways! So don't try to become some idealized and maybe non-existent ideal engineer, but just grow yourself with this new skills and do what works for you!
You mentioned that you have done some R and Python, and your comment about math seems to suggest that the use of those might have been in data science-y fashion?
It could also help to decide _what_ type of software engineering you'd like to do. This could help you clear up a bit of confusion because there's A LOT in software engineering...
Anyways, best of luck!