> physicists, biologists, mathematicians, or zoologists I think there are more than a few people without specifically relevant degrees doing things in those fi

> physicists, biologists, mathematicians, or zoologists I think there are more than a few people without specifically relevant degrees doing things in those fields... Anyway, the difference is that programming is a practical craft done for cash. The question is whether you can get paid to program without a degree, and the answer is yes. Those other fields are more exclusively academic, so you need to satisfy the arbitrary requirements of academia. If there were a big demand for "physics type work" across the private sector there would be plenty of people doing it without physics degrees.