Damn near the very best computer programmer I have ever met, never even applied to college, let alone attended one. He used to write storage drivers for HP-UX.

Damn near the very best computer programmer I have ever met, never even applied to college, let alone attended one. He used to write storage drivers for HP-UX. Now he's doing embedded systems development for the Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea. I asked him once how he learned to do all that. He just said that when he was a kid, he liked to tinker with gadgets.