I hate school. With a passion. I find I learn best sitting quietly alone, thinking, reading or experimenting. This applies not just to Computer Science, but mos

I hate school. With a passion. I find I learn best sitting quietly alone, thinking, reading or experimenting. This applies not just to Computer Science, but most subjects. Between the Internet, amazon and a good library, an above-average intelligence person can teach themselves many subjects, including CS. The point about not knowing the order in which to learn is invalid: Easily solved in <5 minutes by going to a few university websites and trying to establish a common denominator. For the really gifted ( and I should think enough most who are motivated to learn CS autodidactically are), they may probably discover new things by simply playing around, noticing interesting phenomena and use our famous OCD tendencies to add to the field. That's how most scientific discoveries are made. Ramanujan, the great Indian mathematician, was not formally trained, yet made important contributions. I'm also reminded of the anecdote where a student who had not attended class got a copy of the homework from a colleague, not knowing that the professor had told the class the problems were unsolvable. OF course, he solved them; the other students had a mental block. But to be honest, if you learn things from books, they will consider certain problems 'unsolvable' as well. Ultimately, it depends on your IQ, aim and financial situation. If you've made up your mind, like me to be an entrepreneur, you don't have to care about a degree. In fact, I would like to make a ton of money while young, so I can spend lots of time later delving deep into both the sciences and humanities (in many ways an artificial distinction; Google "Lockhart's Lament"). If you plan to work for others, its safe, but not absolutely necessary, like anything else, it depends. In this case, the employer in general and the specific interviewer. If s(he) has had many good experiences with non-degreed employees, your chances are better. From a purely acquisition of knowledge standpoint, yes, you can teach yourself CS. If there's something you're not sure about, I'm absolutely sure that you can develop a good relationship with a good professor local to you or even online. My gut feeling is that good professors wouldn't mind, they love smart students. Ahhh, my friends, the journey of self-discovery!