[vault_]

Chill out a bit. Classes are for more people than the self-taught know-it-all's in the room. Most of those people attend the class because they want to learn the "basic curriculum" and they probably aren't interested in listening to some self-taught guy argue with the professor.

The author of the article is not condemning people for being self-taught; he's condemning them for being arrogant. I would self-identify as a self-taught know-it-all and understand the behavior he's talking about in the article: pointing out minor inaccuracies in things the professor says, answering every question (to the exclusion of others being able to answer), and asking irrelevant "questions" largely just to demonstrate how much better you are than the other students. It's really not that hard to realize that this behavior is disruptive and avoid it.

[dollar]

Arrogance is a disruptive personality characteristic whether the individual is an academoc or self-taught, and no one likes a know-it-all of any type. However, the behaviors you describe are extremely common among gifted and talented individuals, and are part of the reason that such individuals often struggle in the general student population (and real life). Often that talent, enthusiasm, and zest for sharing knowledge that these people possess is interpreted as arrogance. It's no excuse for the behavior - clearly quirky talented types must live in society - but it does mean that the education system should account for these individuals and help them down the road. But it doesn't. The system fails miserably in this regard, and the author of this article needs to realize he is part of the problem.