[smeej]

This may be true in many cases, but without more context for the question, it isn't helpful here.

If someone's trying to change fields into one that requires a credential (I was recently looking into a pivot into becoming a psychologist or a counselor for someone), it doesn't really make any difference if the material could be learned another way, even if it could be learned better that way.

[Silverback_VII]

>If someone's trying to change fields into one that requires a credential.

If you need credentials then somebody needs to care about those credentials which means that you will be someone's employee. You will be stuck on what MJ DeMarco calls the slow lane. Even more so if you get into debt because of it. Howerver, I think big discoveries, money or writing a bestselling book do not care about your credentials. You can achieve higher education and big success on your own.

[smeej]

This simply isn't true. There are LOTS of fields where you're more than free to hang a shingle and run your own business, even hiring your own employees, but not without the credential.

Lawyers can have their own firms. Doctors can have their own practices. LOTS of psychotherapists have their own practices. There's nothing "slow lane" about it for the ones who do it well.

But if they don't have the requisite credential, they get shut down.