[lbo]

This may seem like another one of those trite responses you mentioned, but I would second the notion that "you can do anything you put your mind to" and that you should keep up the program, or at least keep learning CS on your own. If you look to put degree notches on your belt and list languages you know on your resume, you're looking at things the wrong way. Build things! Get excited about what you can build--anything! The more CS you know, the faster you can learn more. If you want to be inspired by some of the applications out there for your talents, try taking one of the awesome free courses at Udacity (or Coursera) and add Python to your list of known languages while you're at it. You can do them at your own pace (I would lump together 3 or 4 classes and just muscle through them when I had a free weekend) and learn from some of the smartest teachers out there.

Even in an elite university, programming isn't something that's taught to you. You teach it to yourself by doing and digging. What university can do is give some structure to what material you get through and ensure a higher level understanding of some of the concepts (and it's probably a better environment for learning the math and statistics that are useful for any computer scientist).

Anyway, don't defeat yourself and don't underestimate how critical this knowledge will be in 10, 15, 25 years when the world will be a whole new place filled with much much more software. The human mind is incredibly plastic and with the proper enthusiasm can be melded to serve nearly any purpose :)

[xenithorb]

I agree with you, and I would love to actually have the time to dedicate to such a focus. What ends up happening in reality, however, is the tradeoff between having a roof over your head, and learning. I'm not sure I'm well versed enough yet at being a civilian worker, and still having enough time to dedicate to learning what it is I want to know.

In other words, I look at your post and thing "YES, Great! I would love to do all those things!," when I come back down to reality and realize that I'll need to spend the majority of my time making slightly more than minimum wage to support myself, just to have a place to sleep. While some learning can be accomplished in the downtime, we both know it can't be done as fast or as efficiently as a full-time student's dedication.

[lbo]

Some jobs are better suited to learning than others. Whether it's working at a public library, being a night-shift security guard, or any other job that would allow you access to a computer (having persistent internet isn't even necessary). What you can get away with is different at different jobs. If you're motivated, you'd be amazed how much you can learn on top of having a full time job--often much more than the average full-time student absorbs. Are you leaning more toward redirecting your learning toward something you can pick up more easily or toward giving up on higher education in general?