[shad0wfax]

The problem is the start. Self taught folks usually find it hard to break into the mainstream, unless they have already done stuff on their own (startup) or are known in the open source community. The CS degree guarantees a channel to enter a company. I was reading a related article from Prof. Vivek Wadhwa about this (his take on students dropping out to do startups), and he encourages going to school (any school). Though, there is some truth I think in school providing a bigger picture/research that is hard to for some self taught folks to get to.