[sounds]

Counterexample?

I'm self-taught. I'm trying to filter for confirmation bias here.

I dated a girl (it was awesome but it didn't last) who was a C.S. grad student but wasn't the type to "autodidact" at anything. She was also a stunning musician, an entrepreneur, and an investor.

Ok, basically I'm trying to paint the picture of someone who is clearly my superior in many areas, and understands C.S., but isn't self taught.

I couldn't pretend to know all the reasons, but she wasn't in it just for the job or the money. She seemed a genuine hacker but just not in the same sense as me.

[billpatrianakos]

I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm not saying that only self-taught programmers are good. In fact I think it's extremely important to get that initial education. I was just commenting on the fact that programming is a field where you're forced to continually learn new things long after your training ends. Your example is probably missing a lot of things. While I'm sure she was a great hacker I'm willing to bet that she continued her education on her own like all of us do. If you're programming then chances are that you're learning things you weren't taught in school all the time. Given that the industry changes noticeably between the time you enter a program of study and graduate it's inevitable.

I also made another point about how some programmers never try to branch out beyond what they're comfortable with coming out of the gate (i.e. they stop learning) which could have made it seem like I was saying something else.