Excellent list, I was wondering if someone bothered to make it.
This is a valid use case for a semantic search engine, let's try: http://powerset.com/explore/go/self%252Deducated-scientist
Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
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Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#22Keep in mind that I say this as a person who's mostly self-educated. There is an alternative point of view: http://weblog.raganwald.com/2005/07/why-you-need-degree-to-w...
In this blog post, the argument is that bigger companies hire people with college degrees precisely because it's a pointless hazing ritual. Granted, that isn't applicable to startups, but there is a reason for a lot of companies to only hire people with college degrees.
Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#23There isn't much to learn from reading a list like this.
Skip the list. Go make a difference.
Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#24There isn't much to learn from reading a list like this. Skip the list. Go make a difference.
Motivation to make a difference is a big help. Otherwise, people might believe that they're worthless simply because they don't have a piece of paper from a college.
Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#25It seems like a number of people on that list are authors and artists. Those are fields where university education has never really been of any significance. It would be more interesting to see a list with those and similar professions removed. Secondly a couple of them are very dubious,for example Chuck Yeager didn't attend college, but calling him self educated is a bit of a stretch as it ignores all the training a…
What makes you say that? Of course college education is important to authors and artists. Of course, I would bet that it's easier to make it in those fields without a degree than in programming.
Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#26I have a degree in theology from an unaccredited school, and I tell people that my "degree" is unaccredited any time I am interviewed, so as to avoid any possibility of being accused of fraud.
I make almost all my money in IT, for which I have had no formal training of any kind. I've done free-lance programming, unix administration, network installations, etc. Some was freelance contract work. At one point, I was an employee of one of the largest mortgage securitization companies (at the time), in charge of application packaging and distribution, laptop certification and 3rd tier hardware support of the same. I am now a CTO of a smaller company. I doubt my lack of an accredited degree would prevent me from getting a job almost anywhere in the field where I was qualified.
But I never trash someone who got a traditional degree. For most people, it is necessary to get past the gatekeepers.
Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#27There isn't much to learn from reading a list like this. Skip the list. Go make a difference.
Motivation to make a difference is a big help. Otherwise, people might believe that they're worthless simply because they don't have a piece of paper from a college.
The list doesn't tell you anything though. It's a pat on the back for making a decision irrespective of whether it is the right one for you, and it doesn't tell you anything about how any of those people actually achieved anything.
We all love identifying with famous people that we admire, but make no mistake: these people all lived very different lives, and each had a host of reasons why apparent lack of credentials did not get in the way of their notoriety which are unique to them. Reasons which you cannot conjure just by reading a list.
Some were born at the right time or to the right parents. Some had extraordinary luck. Some spent most of their lives languishing in obscurity, poverty, misery, or Actual Work. Some were in fact quite well-educated, if not college graduates. Joseph Campbell actually had an M.A. from Columbia. George Washington had family connections and owned slaves. Eric Hoffer spent his whole life doing manual labor. These things are relevant to framing the relationship between their self-education and notoriety.
You're not worthless without a degree, but neither are you Einstein, Faulkner, Hemmingway, Tesla, or Benjamin Franklin, and you won't become more like them by hearing about their accomplishments again. Maybe most people understand that, but I've fallen into that trap enough times over the years to want to post a warning where I can.
I had started to get into this in my comment but left it out for the sake of clarity, because my point, ultimately, is as I said: there isn't much to learn from reading a list like this.
Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#28Related:
CEO's without college education http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/766831.html
Wanted: CEO, no Ivy required http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-04-06-cover-ceos_x....
...seems like a bachelor's degree is a requirement for big company management.
Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#29Related: CEO's without college education http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/766831.html Wanted: CEO, no Ivy required http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-04-06-cover-ceos_x.... ...seems like a bachelor's degree is a requirement for big company management.
"The only CEO of the top-50, whose education is listed as n/a is Martin J Sullivan, the CEO of AIG,"
Pretty funny if you ask me.
Re: Self-educated People Who've Made a Difference
#30It seems like a number of people on that list are authors and artists. Those are fields where university education has never really been of any significance. It would be more interesting to see a list with those and similar professions removed. Secondly a couple of them are very dubious,for example Chuck Yeager didn't attend college, but calling him self educated is a bit of a stretch as it ignores all the training a…
What makes you say that? Of course college education is important to authors and artists. Of course, I would bet that it's easier to make it in those fields without a degree than in programming.
Obviously any educations is helpful, but getting published without a degree isn't anywhere near as impressive as getting a job as a lawyer or research scientist without a university degree.