Ask HN: Old dev, new economy – how to adapt?

I'm a seasoned, and more than competent developer. Like many others, I am completely left out of the current economy - there are few or no jobs for skilled software engineers. Especially outside a few geo hotspots.

To me the frustrating part is seeing all those huge amounts of investment going to AI. I feel as if I could be part of that somehow, instead I'm on the other side of the fence.

What effective things can I do to survive and even thrive in this new economy?

I feel as if the best thing I could do was to "sell shovels". Which is risky, and in a way dishonest.

I also could go for a non-AI type of business, but more often than not, code is not the bottleneck. Sooner or later you need marketing/sales and perhaps capital.

In the meantime I keep seeking for high-quality jobs, but those are rare (for my geo) and competition is acute.