Yes. According to my friends who hire and manage a lot of programmers in silicon valley, it's not totally uncommon to see a self-taught dropout hired over an MI

Yes. According to my friends who hire and manage a lot of programmers in silicon valley, it's not totally uncommon to see a self-taught dropout hired over an MIT grad. You can be self-taught and very successful on the software side of startups. And, as hard as it might be for you to believe now, not everyone with a CS degree knows what they are doing.