It's considerably less democratic than it was. Fully half the practitioners I knew coming up ( from the mid 1980s ) had no degree. The transition from minis to

It's considerably less democratic than it was. Fully half the practitioners I knew coming up ( from the mid 1980s ) had no degree. The transition from minis to micros created a great opportunity for self-taught people to make real money. Many were quite good after a few years. And where are any best of breed systems now that are for sale? All I see is flavor of the month. But I'm in the embedded space, so my vision may be obscured. I was forced to take a J2EE course around 2008, and ... I'll keep my opinion of that experience to myself.