A friend of mine moved to Japan about 10 years ago and has spent a lot of time solo developing his site, Kanpeki Study, for efficiently learning Japanese kanji and vocabulary in bitesize, daily chunks. I'd be doing all his effort a massive disservice if I didn't mention it - hopefully turns out to be a good fit for you 😄.
Have reviewed 16 year old code for a very well known company in the last week with this exact comment peppered throughout, alongside delightfully helpful comments like:
// do not delete or change this it just works
// TODO temporary fix added 12/09/11 to fix incident must be removed ASAP
// CAUTION this returns false here instead of true like it normally does, not sure why
// if true then matched to valid account not is true
UX / UI work lends itself to designers with IT skills in a similar way. I ended up falling into Business Analysis ultimately, but graphic design experience mixed with IT skills have helped immeasurably throughout the twisting path my career took.
Currently working on a programme of work for a huge client whose core system is still running the same COBOL spaghetti that was written in the 80s. The demand for COBOL developers to support or update these systems, and the compensation they get, is wild.
Absolutely the same experience as you. I'd spend weeks (or months, in the case of my final dissertation) mulling things over without being able to write anything, then the night before it'd just click into place and I'd write it all out. I'd end up with good grades as well, but the stress at the time from my frustration at not being able to just "get things done sooner" wasn't fun!
Worked in a stationers over 20 years ago, still remember the barcode for this one pencil eraser we sold all the time that would never scan - 4007817526040.
... Still can't remember a single damn birthday or important appointment. Why, brain, why?