I feel you've perhaps read too far into what I wrote. The fact is that the vast majority of the population couldn't care less about education. The only reason they go to college at all is because they've been told that they won't be able to find a job without it.
With people like Zuckerberg, Jobs, and Gates frequently in the news as of late, people are starting to question those long-held beliefs. They see that people are successful without the education, despite what they've learned to not be true. The stigma of not going to college is starting to lift as a result. Knowing those famed people personally is completely irrelevant here.
If spending a couple of months reading up on Rails will get you a decent job, that's exactly what people will do. They really do not care about deep CS topics. They care about providing a decent home and comfortable living conditions. That is it.
I respect the academics, but you are as rare as the autodidacts.
I didn't really read too much. Again where did Gates and Zuckerberg drop out from? We're not talking about East Savanah Technical College here. Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg are the worst examples you could pick to show that people are shedding long held beliefs about education. They are outliers in several different senses.
Who cares where they dropped out from? All people hear is "you must have a degree to be successful" and then they hear "oh, these people didn't have degrees and are still successful." You give too much credit to believe the vast majority of people actually consider the backgrounds of these so-called outliers. These are the same people who previously bought into the "you must have a degree" line in the first place.
With people like Zuckerberg, Jobs, and Gates frequently in the news as of late, people are starting to question those long-held beliefs. They see that people are successful without the education, despite what they've learned to not be true. The stigma of not going to college is starting to lift as a result. Knowing those famed people personally is completely irrelevant here.
If spending a couple of months reading up on Rails will get you a decent job, that's exactly what people will do. They really do not care about deep CS topics. They care about providing a decent home and comfortable living conditions. That is it.
I respect the academics, but you are as rare as the autodidacts.