My path from a poor building contractor to a senior software developer

I grew up in a poor, extreme religious place, hating science and technology. At 24 I didn't know a single word of English and I had 3 children. I was a poor construction worker. Then I started to make a change. cut, today I am 37 years old and I am a senior software developer, still with 3 only this time they are not children but teenagers.

Amazing. but. I can't proceed to the next step. My knowledge and energies do not reflect my role. I know a great deal about hardware and software engineering and technology and in depth. From microservices architecture to React application. I know how to build a neural network from scratch in any software language. But that leaves me stuck as a full stack developer. Maybe a fast and diligent full stack with a lot of knowledge. But what I want to work on is Amnon Shashua's humanoid robot. Or Elon Musk's one. I want to invest all my talent and energies and work with the smartest people on the most cutting-edge products available. I want to dream at night about technology. I have a lot more to give, but right now I'm just a backend developer.

As I tried to figure out how to attack it, I decided that I needed to be so expert that my place in the interesting places in the industry would be natural. I started studying every day and all day. My life has become: 1) my partner. 2) The children. 3) pool every day 4) learning technologies. When learning technologies takes all my time.

but.

Something feels off. I feel that in order for me to find myself working on Tesla's robot or Amnon Shashua's robot, I need to do what they both have in common - a physics degree.

I said it in a somewhat funny way, but the message is that I need people to appreciate and know that I know a lot, and not just that I myself know a lot. How can this be done?

Well, learning a lot of technology promotes that, but just a little. You also need to work with people, get to know people, gather evidence.

Accumulating evidence is a different skill than other technological knowledge.

Well, I will continue to study technologies most of the time and train AI models and learn all the existing cloud technologies and all the sub-frameworks of ReactJs, but I need to maybe do a degree as well.

Ok, probably with 10 years of intensive experience a non-degree would be the right thing. But so what? Write a technology blog (yes)? continue to simply study technologies in depth (yes, but focus on AI and robotics technologies)? make connections in the industry (yes)?

I do all these. Is there anything else I can do to find myself working on Amnon Shashua's robot next year?

I am waiting for your advice and opinion: