To be part of the proverbial top 1%, you won't just be thinking about the code - you need to be able to understand the subtle interactions that happen within a

To be part of the proverbial top 1%, you won't just be thinking about the code - you need to be able to understand the subtle interactions that happen within a software system, from high-level algorithms down to the low-level compiler stuff, and further down to the bare-metal OS layer. The kind of stuff you will learn from a decent CS course. Now granted, you could teach yourself all of this, but then you'd have a teacher who knows absolutely nothing. It's worth having a mentor to guide you through all this. Doesn't have to be from a university, but it doesn't hurt either.