[buro9]

I never went to Uni first time around as I was homeless then.

I finally went some 15 years after most people did.

I acquired an MSc in Computer Science, having no prior education (no A-levels, Bachelors, etc).

What I found was: It's not essential, but it gives you the vocabulary to communicate your ideas with and confidence in what you're doing. Those can be valuable things, but I had already learned through diverse work experience the subject itself.

I'd recommend solving real problems over going to a class, but I do think there's a lot of value in taking the reading list for a degree and working through it.