[bjrnjs]

This. Plus, even though it might feel like it doesn't give you enough - it will give you education in fields that you don't learn so easily at home.

I dropped out from a university program (non-US citizen, we don't have colleges as you guys do), because I felt it didn't give me enough compared to paid work. However, I regularly wish I stayed for my degree - not because I have a hard time finding employers, but because I actually feel like I'm missing some education. There are many courses which I would love to have read to the end, from mathematics to algorithm theory and finite automata.

[ttty]

What exactly is stopping you to learn what you want? If you are really passionate about it, you find a way, even without college.

[ColinWright]

Sometimes you don't know what you want. I listen to broadcast radio because I'm then exposed to things I'm not used to and didn't realize I'd like or be interested in. Likewise, I'm now finding that I'm using topology in odd places, and I was never interested in that when I did my degree. It wasn't cute fun about twisting bits of paper, it was hard work and deeply unintuitive. But now it's turning up repeatedly as I compress images, compute optimal representations, and work out why the various bits of algorithms aren't working the way I thought they would.

My colleagues think I have superpowers because I have this bizarre collection of things apparently immediately "to hand." But I don't. I remember seeing them in passing, ignored because I didn't care, but now I know what I'm looking for and can find it.

The auto-didact route rarely gives you that. JIT learning tends to leave you without overview and with areas of ignorance you don't even know you have. If you knew you had them you'd fix it.

But you don't. And don't.

[bjrnjs]

Yes, I didn't say it was impossible to learn stuff on your own -- it's just not as easy as if you have scheduled time to do it (during school hours).

And if you are referring to me and my situation, I'm trying to learn as much as I can on my own. But it gets tougher the older one gets, and I have a hard time to find the time.