A big problem is the lack of publication access though. I happen to have most accounts through work (ACM, IEEE, etc.), but if I didn't, I'd have to find other

A big problem is the lack of publication access though. I happen to have most accounts through work (ACM, IEEE, etc.), but if I didn't, I'd have to find other ways to get about half the papers I read. I think the "unschooled" approach is more appealing for practitioners / systems software. BitTorrent and BitCoin both have had papers, though of course that's wasn't their real point, and not their real impact. If you want to prove results, it seems rare to have the motivation outside the academic community. The environment and feedback is important. But I'd be interested in any examples of people who have done this. I recall seeing some examples of professors without Ph.D.'s a few months back on HN. I think anyone who is proving good theoretical results will be quickly offered an academic job, and take it, since they likely won't have another way of supporting themselves.