[MAGZine]

> This brings me to another point. Programmers are necessarily autodidacts because shit changes incredibly fast. You can't be a one trick pony. So if we're pushing kids through these incredibly formulaic methods of learning, what are we really preparing them for? A life of being an enterprise code monkey? The student who taught themselves anything, even if they are missing a few core details, are more equipped to fix those gaps in their understandings.

depends where you go and what their objective is. some schools focus on teaching real-world tools. which is great for getting a job, but less useful because there are completely new tools every few years.

other places focus on the theory of it all so when you see "new" things, you already have the knowledge to understand the basics.

chances are your professor is cherry-picking the parts to implement because while you could fully implement all parts, the learning probably bleeds off quickly. Also, based on your calculations, assuming you take a full course-load (5 courses), 3 weeks * 5 = 15 weeks = ~3.5 months, which is roughly a semester.

sure, you could get an education without a school. nothing stopping you. but, ultimately, people put a value on the piece of paper, the connections can be valuable, and school does a good job of educating/exposing you to a lot of things in a fair amount of rigor in a decent amount of time.

0.02