Here's my 2p: a mixture is good, but ultimately it comes down to what is best for you. My background has been quite a mix. Most of my formal education is relat

Here's my 2p: a mixture is good, but ultimately it comes down to what is best for you. My background has been quite a mix. Most of my formal education is related to electronics (my degree was an embedded systems engineering) whilst my outside interests were in CS, programming and the internet (and some sociology thrown in on top :D). All of my programming and CS knowledge is self taught. Career wise I've been more successful in the CS side of things - but there are large portions of that success which come down to things brought out of formal education. Stuff like essay writing really helped my form filling for example (and I seem to do a hell of a lot of that! :D) as well as technical handling and critical thinking (part of the engineering blitz they gave us!) Now I am just starting out on an Open University (who provide degrees through distant learning) after my Dad advised it as a good route. This is the best of both worlds because it requires a lot of self teaching from the provided material but with the formal aspects of tests and essays thrown in on top. Im doing it alongside my work in related fields so it really is a complete learning mix and it's been an enlightening experience - I really think more people should be encouraged to take this route from the get-go. Im finding it a real joy to do because it doesn't matter if you drift off into an aside - that is almost the point (at this level at least - Masters, one imagines Bachelors and non-degree level is a bit more rigid) of the exercise.