There's a certain cultural or community hypocrisy in these discussions. Not at the level of individuals necessarily, but it seems in reading through HN and othe

There's a certain cultural or community hypocrisy in these discussions. Not at the level of individuals necessarily, but it seems in reading through HN and other sites, there's two opposite messages I see: The first is "degree doesn't matter! You need to go out and build something, and you don't need a degree to do it!" The other is "we won't hire anyone except those with X STEM degree, possibly even not anyone unless they have a master's degree or higher." As someone considering a career change (with an advanced degree) it's maddening. The message seems to be that if you don't have a core STEM degree, or haven't started a self-sustaining mega-profitable business, you have no ability to do anything. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, other than that societal perceptions of skill and ability seem seriously pathological. I don't think everyone needs an undergrad degree, but it sure doesn't hurt. But by the same token, a degree isn't everything, and I think people need to take this position seriously if they're going to take it.