He was already a university professor and fought in WWI, tho...
Alternatively: you are having quality life experiences, do good by your friends, and engage with your community. You don't need to compare yourself to historical overachievers.
I have to remind myself of this constantly, because our culture won't.
the overwhelming majority of humans who have ever lived "accomplished" absolute jack diddly squat, they just spent their lives picking berries and making twine.
compared to that we can "accomplish" miracles with a laptop and a browser, just go add some information on a niche wikipedia article and you've contributed more to humanity than most people could have ever dreamed of.
He spent 20 years worldbuilding and wrote Hobbit before it.
the only difference between us and tolkien is that he wrote down his daydreams
The Philosopher and Mathematician published some of his best work in his 90s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell
You're doing fine.
And what was he doing for decades PRIOR to that which possibly gave him the experience and skills........
