You make several good points. In my experience the autodidacts you describe are the exceptional ones. I have come across far more self-taught developers who la

You make several good points. In my experience the autodidacts you describe are the exceptional ones. I have come across far more self-taught developers who lack the breadth of knowledge and yet think they have all the answers. As for your comment about Steve Jobs, he is widely recognised as an exemplary outlier. Even so, Jobs was a visionary and an exceptional leader. But without the team of very capable and talented people he would not have achieved what they did as a team!