I used to think that too when I was younger a way less experienced. Suffice to say, not so much anymore. The reason, apart from US which is unique in this in w

I used to think that too when I was younger a way less experienced. Suffice to say, not so much anymore. The reason, apart from US which is unique in this in worst possible way, is something else than just pure code hacking skills - these are not that important. What even the crappiest school will teach you way better than no school at all - discipline. Wading through tons of useless topics (at least in my case), its hard to be self-centered primadona. Real work looks much more like meetings, wading through tons of documentation, accepting mundane tasks since they improve things overall but are not fun at all. Brilliant self-thought people usually require fun and challenging work or they quickly move away, which most work isn't, even in software. I'll take OK disciplined guy over stellar one which needs management babysitting re what I mentioned, any day. YMMV. But yeah what is actually taught in school, at least in my era, was basically useless at work. The stuff that helped were my projects where I picked/created topics that actually helped me to get better at given area.