The social world of a full time worker is very, very different than one of a college student. I'd argue the the college atmosphere is far more conducive to social and emotional growth.

No, it assumes that both will continue to learn on their own, and thus end up at about par for the time spent. The experience may differ between the practical and theoretical, the mechanics and the concepts. I am assuming a self-motivated, intelligent individual in both cases. But my point isn't that one is better than the other, but that a degree is not necessary to be successful in the field, contrary to the previous poster.

You're right, I misunderstood your argument and I apologize and agree with your point. But while college may not be necessary for a successful career, I do feel that going to college is *generally* a better option in terms of developing happiness. Especially for "nerds". :)

Solid post. I've been out of college working as a developer for about 12 years and have been thinking about going back to school. I miss the culture of learning, especially the smart women. :)

Your comment completely disregards the benefits of the social and emotional learning done in college. Also known as making friends (with a diverse set of people) and getting laid.

It also assumes that someone working as an IT monkey will spend free time learning but that someone in college won't. College students generally have significantly more free time than full time workers, time which can be spent engaging with professors, hanging out in user groups, contributing to FOSS projects, or even volunteering as a cable pulling, malware removing, printer fixing "IT person" for local non-profits.

At a job or in college, what you get out is a function of what you put in. Personally I think college offers superior returns. Learning the fundamentals of C.S. or Math + a diverse set of electives or a second major >>> grunt level IT work, and the rest is up to the individual.

An utterly useless article information wise, and a little too over the top to be considered a fine example of hater bait. I know you're not the brightest bunch, but surely you can do better than this, eds.

How did your GF resolve the Cognitive Dissonance in the situation you created by the fanboi jokes?

Unless you have limitless resources or extremely limited goals, you are underserving anyone using a decent browser by spending development time on IE 5.5.

Nobody is trying to make you look like a hypocrite, but I will point out that you are either intellectually dishonest or deficient if you think there is no user cost to supporting many API versions.