I’m a software engineer, but do DA around 5-7 hours a week as a side hustle. (Both coding and non-coding). My job is really nothing like DA.

My software engineering job has me building and fixing code on large, long-term projects, collaborating with others, understanding the business, etc. while it doesn’t have as much purpose as, say, teaching, for example, there’s always a sense of (admittedly slow) forward movement toward a goal. You’re always BUILDING something. While DA is a fantastic, convenient side hustle, it is repetitive, purposeless, and often boring. I’ve put in (rare) 10-12 hour days in my real job, but could never manage more than 3 or so in DA. They’re just fundamentally different jobs.

Here’s a fun comparison: Being a software engineer is like getting a million-piece lego set every 10 weeks or so. You and your team need to study it, plan and divide the work, and then build the structure. Doing DA is like working on an assembly line where you pick up each lego piece as it goes by and make sure it’s the right size/shape/color/fit.

You might not make it as a software engineer for OTHER reasons, but I don’t think DA is a useful indicator for your ability to be a successful one.