[daliwali]

I wasn't suggesting that a 4 year degree confers any advantage. I think it's merely status signalling to potential employers. Practically speaking, my degree only helped me at one point in my life: moving to a foreign country.

There's nothing wrong with software that only needs code monkeys to write. It doesn't have to be technical masterpiece to be useful, or valuable to business. Just think of all the code monkeys with jobs.