I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, and while it's just one data point, building a career in software developing without formal training or education is

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, and while it's just one data point, building a career in software developing without formal training or education is what I have been doing for a few years now. Anecdotally: I attempted to get into a degree program in CS from my local university after having taken the required prerequisites, and getting mediocre grades in those classes, and was rejected. So I resolved to keep studying on my own, get Tech Support jobs and learn on the job, and keep applying to programming positions. I worked two fairly low-level tech support jobs before I applied (internally) and was hired on as a junior level programmer. It was only for about six months, until a new CTO canned me, after which I spent about a month getting hammered with job offers and recruiters' emails, then went with a great smaller company I'm currently working for. Furthermore, I fully submit that those who have a real passion for the work of programming, who get a buzz from figuring out how the small problems they're tackling aggregate into the kinds of large, effective systems that make companies run these days, those people will do very well. If the original poster's friends are motivated mostly by getting a good-paying job with some job security, but don't derive much satisfaction from the work itself, it will likely burn them out in no time.