What I miss in those kinds of discussions are the intangible benefits of having studied a subject in depth to acquire a degree. The person that entered university is different from the one that came out of it. The way to tackle problems, to think scientifically, the ability to see the broader picture are some of the advantages of good education that are easy to dismiss since they are not immediately visible.
There has been a similar thread on HN where someone with a bunch of degrees said: "I haven't used anything from my studies in my work". But this person might be blind to the fact how the education shaped her mind. Understanding goes beyond mere knowledge.
My degree continues to inform me, years later, because we looked at some of the theory and at a lot of generally applicable ideas, not just tech specifics. In some ways it's frustrating that we didn't look at more tech specifics... but in others, I was given the time and the tools to pick things up quickly.
I've worked with a couple of good people without degrees, I'm not saying it's impossible, just that I've found it very useful. I don't think I'm alone in this!
(Also, c'mon, a degree is not just about the qualification or the education, it's about meeting peers and forming life-long bonds, and having fun too :)
-- edit -- Oh, and on-topic, I think it's good to test your boundaries - reverse engineering an embedded board with a multimeter, a line-levelling serial adaptor and a soldering iron, and then getting it to boot linux with some custom kernel bring-up code, was one of the most rewarding things I've done in recent years. Learning a little bit more about something that's a black box at the edge of your understanding is always good.
> There has been a similar thread on HN where someone with a bunch of degrees said: "I haven't used anything from my studies in my work". But this person might be blind to the fact how the education shaped her mind.
I tried to read thought my uni notes on metric spaces a couple of years ago. I don't even understand them anymore. Littered with idiot comments like "obviously -> " despite it being nothing of the sort.
I'm guessing you don't use metric spaces in your day to day work. Take a look at notes from a subject you are actively using, and I think much of it would be obvious.
Yeah, I think it's also wrong. Most of the time I don't need any of my university knowledge at work. But it has helped me out many times just knowing that there is a better algorithm, or knowing how something works below, or knowing some extra math.
Same here. For me, often the most useful thing I bring away from my university CS classes is the knowledge that various problems have been solved, and even if I don't know those solutions (either I forgot them or never actually learned them), I know where to start looking.
I take this a step further and just always start with the assumption that a solution already exists. I've found that to be very rarely wrong in practice.
There has been a similar thread on HN where someone with a bunch of degrees said: "I haven't used anything from my studies in my work". But this person might be blind to the fact how the education shaped her mind. Understanding goes beyond mere knowledge.