My step son is getting into programming and he told me about a console app he wrote where he stored the data in a flat file. I suggested he look into storing it

My step son is getting into programming and he told me about a console app he wrote where he stored the data in a flat file. I suggested he look into storing it in json format. For me, the biggest benefit of a degree is more to show you what you don't know in pretty broad strokes. It's up to you to investigate deeper either on the street or with a more specific curriculum. Broadening the possibilities of knowledge is pretty big. I've known of several otherwise great self-taught developers who didn't know much about database design because they just never really ran across it.