Ask HN: Is it a waste of time to teach yourself data science without a degree?

>What is it that prevents anyone from learning anything without getting a degree?

The people with advanced degrees want to protect the value of their investment.

As others have noted, the reality is you can generate a ton of value to business by "learned at home data science". Will you be doing cutting edge ML research? Of course not. But 99.9% of everyday problems can be solved with simple tools.

>> in the real world you won't be allowed anywhere near such a position without having a degree ...

yes, most likely they won't hire you for a "Data Scientist" position, but there are related jobs out there you can be qualified for if you have programming skills and understand DS stuff to some degree.

I've seen setups where a PhD with a "scientist" in his title would act as an architect/co-team lead with a senior engineer running a team of developers.

Someone has to implement DS' ideas after all and unless we're talking a really small team (or a jack of all trades DS) where DS has to write all the code himself - there is a need for developers with "some DS background" in those situations.

In short, public universities and colleges have more than 50 years of history operating in an almost communist, authoritarian state. Private institutions are still widely considered to be worse than public, and the latter still operate on a presumption that students should be happy for just being accepted (and ripped off - sometimes unlawfully, as the public higher education is supposed to be free). In reality, when we chose to go all democratic in '89, the amount of money sent to the institutions diminished, while any change in their mode of operation was resisted, for 25 years and counting, so things only get worse since then.

It's hard to imagine without experiencing it firsthand. How could it be that big of a deal? But it is: you're treated not as a customer, not as a partner, but as a lowly supplicant in all your interactions with the institutions. You're expected to just "put up with it for a while" (like 3 to 5 years...) and drink some vodka if you get frustrated a bit too much.

Teaching yourself anything is definitely not a waste of time.

Don't get so caught up in the "degree."

I've met individuals with graduate degrees in computer science (i know OP asked for data science, but the overall point here applies to any field) that didn't hold a candle to self taught developers. If you're actually passionate and interested about something, you will become extremely well-versed in it. On the other hand, if you're not excited about data science, a degree with probably benefit you more than without one since it will force you to learn the topic.

In a nutshell, it's up to you to make yourself valuable and present that value to the world - a degree is just a shortcut for recruiters to filter on, but you can skip recruiters and talk to anyone in any company.

I have been working software and IT engineering for almost 35 years. I'm self taught and, never took a college course until about 5 years ago. I have not been out of work for many years now and, the reason for that is the fact that most companies desire people who can hit the ground running. College degrees and books are fine for getting the basics but, what you learn in college is FAR different than what is in the real world. Companies want people who have been in the trenches and learned with "Trial by fire".

If you want to get a start as a self educated person in IT then, learn what you can on your own and then reach out to contracting firms. Get a few entry level contract gigs under your belt in order to pad your resume with some experience and then move up the ladder.