There are degrees of "self-taught". There are programmers who majored in CS and stay up on the field, programmers who majored in math and worked their way thro

There are degrees of "self-taught". There are programmers who majored in CS and stay up on the field, programmers who majored in math and worked their way through the algorithms book, programmers with no degree at all. As a math major, I guess I'll just punt and say the relationship between this and self-directed learning in law school "is left as an exercise for the reader". I do tend to agree with you that all learning ultimately is self directed, though again, that takes different forms. Here's the thing - if formally enrolling in law school can't be characterized as "not self study", what can be? We'd be striking the phrase from the language at that point. So while I agree that all learning is self-directed to an extent, I do think it's reasonable to say that programmers do tend to be more "self-taught" than lawyers.