Funny, I was almost exactly 31 when I decided to abandon my small business and go into web development. I have a degree in Psychology but had a long hobbyist programming history going back to writing BASIC programs on an Apple IIe, then later some dabbling in Assembler, Pascal and C.
From 2003 to 2010 I built LAMP stack bespoke websites for a modest living and then joined a startup that was using Ruby-on-Rails.
Now I make > $100K and get job inquiries twice a day.
It is definitely possible to make such a career change, but it is challenging to find just the right environment to be able to do it and still make a living while learning. For almost a decade I had to rely on my non-programming work skills to still have value to an employer while learning. For me this was Desktop publishing and light system admin work. It was also difficult to find increasingly complex real-world projects to work on to push me to learn more.
Because of the points I made in my OP: engineers and patents. I'm not saying that Apple wants Bill Nguyen. Based on his leaving Apple last time his company was acquired, maybe they in fact don't want him. They want his engineers and patents, to get them, you have to buy the company. To get rid of him, you have to buy the company.
Why not an acquihire? Perhaps (pure speculation) Bill Nguyen is brilliant at hiring engineers, masterful at developing new technologies (and their associated patents), but utterly crap at productizing these technologies? Guess who is really good at productizing technologies? Seems like a perfect match, especially if Apple saw their previous acquisition of Lala as a success.
This is the first time I've seen "The Goal" referenced in relation to software development. I'm surprised I haven't seen it brought up before. I read it as required reading when part of a software project team back in 1999 and it still seems so relevant to this day.
From 2003 to 2010 I built LAMP stack bespoke websites for a modest living and then joined a startup that was using Ruby-on-Rails.
Now I make > $100K and get job inquiries twice a day.
It is definitely possible to make such a career change, but it is challenging to find just the right environment to be able to do it and still make a living while learning. For almost a decade I had to rely on my non-programming work skills to still have value to an employer while learning. For me this was Desktop publishing and light system admin work. It was also difficult to find increasingly complex real-world projects to work on to push me to learn more.