Textbook-type knowledge of programming (and more specifically, data structures and algorithms) are not all that's required to be successful in this industry, bu

Textbook-type knowledge of programming (and more specifically, data structures and algorithms) are not all that's required to be successful in this industry, but it's sure a hell of a lot more important than 1% of the whole puzzle. I can't say much about 12-weeks-programmer guy, but if the only skill that 12-weeks-programmer guy has is the programming skills he's obtained in those 12 weeks and the only skills 10-years-of-pounding-CS-books guy has are the skills he's obtained from those books, I'm going to pick the guys that's been reading all about automata theory to be more successful. Not that I'm saying that the author is destined to be unsuccessful. I'm just trying to point out that classical CS skills are more important than you're portraying.