[crusso]

That's one of the great things about this industry.

What other everyday profession is so interesting to pick up as a teenager and so amenable to learning professional-level skills without ever leaving your house?

Sure, you could start studying medicine or the law at an early age, but no one will let you practice those things without a degree. You can't get experience operating on a cadaver when you're 12 like you can putting together some arduino circuits or a Node.js web site.

I always found it amusing how much emphasis recruiters placed on where I went to school in my first couple of jobs after college when so little of what I felt I brought to the job I actually learned at the University level.