Not sure for how much longer this will be true, but if someone can survive in the market without a degree, something about them must be exceptional. Not having

Not sure for how much longer this will be true, but if someone can survive in the market without a degree, something about them must be exceptional. Not having a degree is a ridiculously expensive counter signal that is costly enough to be honest in many cases, so as a fast filter, it's often worth interviewing them. I get that a business that needs autodidact polymaths to run it is by definition going to have trouble scaling, will probably fail because nobody else could understand it, and that it is probably not a very good business, but this describes the vast majority of businesses, which fail in their first few years anyway. The outcome of blowing your capital on mediocre staff vs. unproven mavericks is the same. However, expecting unconventional outcomes while only risking conventional failure seems a bit self fulfilling.