Ask HN: Is online self-education useful or just delusion?

My experience with this is related to music, but since software engineering is similarly flexible with regards to qualifications, I'm sure it could apply.

I'm totally self-taught in music, using mostly books and the internet to begin, then just real world experience playing in jams and gigging for free with strangers. Eventually, I was able to fund myself in university through my post grad just by playing bass in a band. Auditions where you can show what you can do(by literally playing for others) isn't too dissimilar to coding exams in interviews, as well as having a "portfolio" of sorts.

So I would say that self-education is definitely useful. Although I've not experienced it in the world of software, I have first hand experience in it's usefulness elsewhere.

From experience, most of them would have discarded their own founders' CVs.

Ironically without an appropriate degree it can be harder to work your way into an average government contractor than a big tech company. In particular, I could see agencies like NASA strictly requiring an accredited degree as I know a lot several government contractors to do. I have a desire to someday work in space exploration, and have to make sure of knowing JPL & NASA's requirements ahead of time.

I have a Arts degree. I spoke with someone with prior experience at NASA. From what he told me, I would say their SWEs have backgrounds "diverse, but still very same". They come from many degrees, but they're all STEM degrees.

Assuming they don't have strict degree requirements, I could lay out a job path that goes from local web shop (I'm mostly a web developer) to local web & app shop. At this point I get to add Java to my resume for Android. Even though Android is going away from Java it will be years before it stops being used.

After 1-2 years of java experience I'll likely be more applicable for a lot of good software engineering jobs and on fairly equal footing with someone with a 4-year degree. I might still have that barrier of entry with JPL, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Now let's go to the other option, getting a more appropriate degree. I would like a second 4 year degree, perhaps in ECE or CS to complement my Art degree.

A lot of people also want to get another degree, but that's easier said than done since some options become harder and some become easier when you are in your mid 30's like me

I have no SO and no kids, so potentially I can be very mobile, but the lack of a job offsets that. How do you set aside years of time for another full degree, with a small support network, and prevent myself from living on the streets? I don't have any friends or family that I know of that'll let me life rent-free for years. I also have to consider if I have to return to the life of working a humbling service job. I'm not in my early 20's anymore so I can't be as flexible and open with part-time jobs and living arrangements.

I have no expectation that my online learning will amount to anything other than just plain fun. I learned, to some extend, astrophotography and astronomy, day trading, machine learning, and many other minor skills on just an undergraduate (BSc) degree in AI. I have absolutely no illusion that anybody in their right mind will ever hire me on just the online learning. It's just for fun. I didn't know how to do something, now I do. That's all there is to it I think. The rest is mostly just luck and having a big mouth.

Yes, but not in the way you think. They selected themselves.

Of course people know more of fantastic successes than those who end up in the middle or at the bottom of the heap. Many both with and without credentials fail. More of those with credentials succeed, but it is an extremely tenuous argument to claim that schooling caused its recipients to succeed rather than the more straightforward explanation that schools select those who would succeed even without them.

Selection bias is a factor (along multiple dimensions) and it isn't at all clear whether universities make a net positive or net negative contribution to their pupils. One thing is clear, however. It's better to force gatekeepers to filter you out rather than do the task for them.