It's really interesting to see that so many HN readers describe themselves as "self-taught programmers". I would describe myself as that as well, despite just g

It's really interesting to see that so many HN readers describe themselves as "self-taught programmers". I would describe myself as that as well, despite just graduating from university last year with a Software Engineering degree (at my university, Software Engineering is a four-year degree that's essentially a superset of a Computer Science degree). I think the use of labels in this instance are not helpful. A person who hasn't touched a piece of code before they enter university is unlikely to magically become a great programmer in the course of three or four years. Indeed, my first-ever submission to HN was spurred on by a bit of disgruntlement at the quality of some of my peers (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1902687 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1902687 - not much in the way of discussion :). My opinion on what you might get with a degree that you would be less likely to get without formal study: > More study of development processes and tools (this might apply more to SE than CS) > More study of the broad theory of computation > Earlier exposure to team programming (this comparison is clearly with "self-taught" programmers that aren't working in the industry) > Much, much more cruft that you're not really interested in :) I'm personally glad that I studied SE at a tertiary level. It balanced out my other degree, it was a good way to meet other like-minded folks (and to compare my own skills against them), and perhaps most importantly I was exposed to a lot of stuff that I feel I wouldn't have sought out on my own. That said, I would feel it the height of presumption to "look down" on a programmer with a lack of degree. I know firsthand that a piece of paper does not make you a good programmer, and vice versa. The real determinant of how good a programmer you are is how good a programmer you are.