Embrace the healing power of AND. (OR is for losers) I taught myself to code, and sold my first commercial project at the age of 14. And learned a lot. I then

Embrace the healing power of AND. (OR is for losers) I taught myself to code, and sold my first commercial project at the age of 14. And learned a lot. I then went on to get a CS degree (in addition to physics, math and EE degrees - all undergrad). And learned a lot. (The structured program of learning about Databases, Compilers (and more about compilers!) and Operating Systems was far above what I would have (could have?) learned on my own. Data Structures and Algorithms - that is straight forward enough if you already know how to code) And then went on to sling a LOT of lines of code. And learned a lot. Now - I don't think ANY of those (except maybe the last one) teaches one to be a systems engineer, which one needs to be for large systems, but they are all excellent building blocks for when you get there!