I've seen this debate from both sides. I worked as a self taught programmer for about 7 years before I went back to college. College forced me to learn the all

I've seen this debate from both sides. I worked as a self taught programmer for about 7 years before I went back to college. College forced me to learn the all the (seemingly) boring parts of Computer Science that I'd skipped over while teaching myself. Some people have the discipline and drive to spend time proving that an algorithm is O(n^2) or that a grammar isn't regular--most do not. My CS degree filled in so many holes in my background that I didn't even know I had, and most of the other self taught programmers I've worked with weren't too different from me. Many times this is the difference between spending a week banging your head against a wall, and taking 10 minutes to realize your particular problem was solved 50 years ago.