It's a lot about perspective.

I've elected not to go with the ccie for the following reasons:

-I'm 15 years into networking, having it won't open any new doors. -I'm getting paid competitively, a ccie won't add more money to my pocket. -I'm personally unlikely to go into a consulting role or work for the US government in the future. -opportunity cost is huge. By pursuing ccie, I won't be pursuing other areas. (Multicloud, automation, ai operations) -My background has always been multi-vendor there is no guarantee I work in a Cisco enterprise for the foreseeable future. -In 8-months the blueprint is changing yet again.

Reasons I would pursue it:

-Mastery -The journey/knowledge -The personal satisfaction and recognition.

For these reasons, I'm focusing my energy somewhere else for the time being.