Absolutely - a self-taught programmer should be able to figure out how to solve that problem. All I'm saying is that it's going to take longer for the self-tau

Absolutely - a self-taught programmer should be able to figure out how to solve that problem. All I'm saying is that it's going to take longer for the self-taught to solve it because it's not something they have thought much about before. Having a CS degree gives you a large advantage when solving problems like this, but that advantage is markedly lower when you are trying solve typical real-world problems in the private sector.