I don't have an answer but something of a follow-up question: my theory on how to do this is to find a field where my stuff skills are very useful, but are a complement to the job rather than the job itself. I'm thinking of things like scientific / engineering / research endeavors where the ability to think through how to structure and work with large amounts of data in a maintainable way is a useful skill but the software itself is not the primary work product. Has anybody had success with this approach?