To be a true philomath/autodidact, one does need to do more than just read a few books. You need to be possessed of such determination to learn as much as you c

To be a true philomath/autodidact, one does need to do more than just read a few books. You need to be possessed of such determination to learn as much as you can that you realize how little you know and are not satisfied until you've at least made an attempt to best the summit. Being able to hack out a few toy programs and call it a day is not enough. The pursuit of wisdom for a philomath is a life-long endeavor and measured with the same rigor as the process for an academic scholar. We just live with the connotations of the term, "hack." Here I was expecting to refute the OP, but instead I am left disappointed. He is not some academic elitist guffawing at the plebeians attempting to build their own ivory towers. Instead he is a corporate lifer making some inane red-herring argument. What he's really suggesting is that you cannot teach yourself anything. I find that notion particularly banal.