PS I actually do see a lot of value in a CS degree. I find myself spending more and more time reading and learning about general CS theories and concepts lately. I find them extremely useful for expanding my higher level understanding of the field and I think it's really important. I don't think you can truly be a GREAT programmer without them.
It didn't. Anaconda or Tensorflow + a book is all you need anymore.
I think the author is exploiting a fundamental fact of programming: smart people make hard things easy. So you're either in the top X% of smart CS people that make these awesome tools that allow everyone to do complex things, or you're on the other side competing against smart people like the author who just leverage these tools to build cool products.
It's like being in a fish tank with sharks and piranhas, no matter what side you go to, somebody's going to eat you up.
As for CS degree I don't have one so you will have to speak with someone that does. In my opinion there is no better learning than when you are employed and working in teams so I prefer that method for practicality purposes.
What I got most out of it was math. The CS courses are largely trivial if you're a decent developer who keeps up with learning. However, I would have never learned calc, linear algebra, coding theory, or encryption on my own. So, if I were to go back and talk to pre-college me, I'd tell him to skip CS and just do straight math/physics.
This point goes against all of his other points. A skill that takes six months to get extremely good at is going to be commoditized in short order. So, it seems like a mistake to bank on this kind of knowledge being relevant in 40 years.
Honestly though, I am starting to feel like a fool for completing a CS degree. While I have a great career, most of the what I learned was useless. Back in 2012, I couldn't get a job doing machine learning because nobody wanted people with those skills, and the few companies that did looked for Ph.Ds. So even though I could build do cool stuff with ML in plain Octave, I couldn't get a job in the field.
Today, all you need to do is to break into the field is read a few books and learn a tool. The skill has been completely commoditized, rendering all that I work I did moot. Then again, at least now I sort of have a job in the field.