I may be biased because I am from a country where the first degree was for free and we did not have to pay tuition fee. At that time "I can teach myself X" mean

I may be biased because I am from a country where the first degree was for free and we did not have to pay tuition fee. At that time "I can teach myself X" meant "I can teach myself X so why not have a paper about it?". A lot of us are on the job market and you compete with us.