Thanks, I mostly wanted to illustrate that there are some who fall into the age and education range mentioned that also spend time to teach themselves outside of class. My main point being that its difficult to attribute knowledge directly to an age and time spent in a degree path. However, I also fall in the subset that just seem to enjoy this type of learning, with probably too much time on their hands.
The value of book learning/straight ordinary education is underrated in software.
Software engineers consistently overvalue the benefits of "I need to be a crazy outlier," and consistently undervalue getting to bed on time, using a visual debugger, and "normal work habits."
(But after saying that, congrats on the learning you've been doing)