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Re:What should a self-taught programmer with no degree learn... by jerf on Friday December 17, 2010 @10:42AM (#2016520)
I'm not sure the SICP is for everyone, but that's exactly why I recommend it to self-taught programmers and the occasional "I'm a web jockey but I'd like to learn to be a real programmer" post. If you're excessively steeped in the practical side, it focuses like a laser beam on the bits of education you've missed out on, and in a shocking twist of fate, will teach you eminently practical skills as well. I'd rather hire web jockey + "I worked all the way through the SICP" than a guy with just a degree.

(I hate it when people say they learned nothing from schooling, computer science theory is dripping with practical usefulness. Unless you're just so damned brilliant you came up with compiler theory and basic AI and type theory and all kinds of other stuff all on your own. Which I don't believe.)

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