Well again, there are individuals but on the whole this is an issue. I suspect there are many more people without degrees that have no idea about this field tha

Well again, there are individuals but on the whole this is an issue. I suspect there are many more people without degrees that have no idea about this field than anyone really likes to admit. Is it true that there are very successful autodidacts in this field? Yes. Is it true that autodidacts represent a much smaller percentage of the population than is implied by articles like this? Yes. It is a broad field, no one can be expected to know everything; this is true of any field. However, what is found in a few YouTubes and a devbootcamp is not, in my view, something that will carry large percentage a of people through a bubble or saturation. These discussions are a little awkward as well because anyone that is in the pool of autodidacts is quick to defend themselves. The issue is not "Can one be in the top of the field of programming/CS without a CS degree?" This is very different question; actually I think a good foundation in computer science or mathematics would help people, greatly, in realizing that these are separate issues!