Comment I am a self-taught engineer you insensiti...oh! (Score 1) 630
What this really boils down to is the fact that a lot of software development is a craft, and not a science. Schools don't teach the craft of programming, hell with a four year degree you barely touch on the basics. Figuring that out is something we're left to do on our own and it's largely up to experience to make that happen. So the reason self-taught developers seem preferable is because there's a certain comfort in knowing that we do this stuff for fun - but that never has been or ever will be mutually exclusive to the self taught. I've known awful self taught programmers, and I've known incredible programmers with a doctorate. It's all down to circumstance, common sense, individual strengths, and interests. There's a lot of reasons people get computer science degrees, not all of which are "because I fucking love it!", which is why it's not all that useful when picking out a candidate.