[coldtea]

>realist contrarian question: why? If you didn't receive a formal education but you got good at OOP js or php, your expected salary gets pretty close to six figures. No understanding or even theoretical appreciation of other paradigms required.

Because it's about the knowledge, and about doing what you do better, not merely about how much you earn.

"Give him threepence, since he must always make gain out of what he learns" -- Euclid said to his servant when a student asked what he would get out of studying geometry.