Are rockstar programmers more likely not to have a college degree?

Question

Do you think this is the case?

anovikov · Accepted Answer

I would say yes, because many come from disadvantaged groups and are so smart they could get any degree but couldn't afford any; so they went to coding which is just about only well-paying desk-job field where you can succeed without a degree. So they needed to make money (they were poor and could not afford to "follow their passion", they needed to make ends meet, now - and probably support a lot of deadbeat relatives), and they couldn't afford a degree, and became coders. If they had more cash and fewer pressures, they'd probably just choose another field and equally succeed in it, but we see overconcerntration of them in coding because that's the only field that doesn't discriminate against/reject them.

siamese_puff · Answer

In my 10 years of this career all of the rockstar programmers I&rsquo;ve worked with have had a college degree. Not saying there is a correlation, but I&rsquo;ve only worked with a very small handful of absolute wizards.

JohnFen · Answer

Rockstar programmers are so rare that I don't think there's a large enough population to make strong demographic conclusions about them.That said, the few that I've personally known and worked with have all lacked a degree.

Are rockstar programmers more likely not to have a college degree?

Do you think this is the case?

In my 10 years of this career all of the rockstar programmers I’ve worked with have had a college degree. Not saying there is a correlation, but I’ve only worked with a very small handful of absolute wizards.

Rockstar programmers are so rare that I don't think there's a large enough population to make strong demographic conclusions about them.
That said, the few that I've personally known and worked with have all lacked a degree.