I've always felt my degree gave me a good grounding over a wide area.

I've worked with people with and without degrees. Some of the best had no degree, some had PhDs, some had a standard BSc. Some of the worst were in all three categories too.

But I have found my degree useful, and not just for opening doors.

That makes sense. Hopefully my comment doesn't sound like I think people with degrees are worse. My point was that I feel it comes down to the person and not the source of their education.

Heh. I get a bit defensive at times, probably unnecessarily, but there seems to be a "formal education is a waste of time" meme about the place.

Agreed, a lazy or incompetent software/IT worker is lazy and/or incompetent regardless of past educational achievement!

Having a degree I can attest that formal education contributes very little if the student is unmotivated.

If anything this means the person didn't want to fit in the mold. I shall remind that school first and primary purpose when it has been created was to format and mold people so that they would be more uniformized and easier to control.

Self-taught people, misfits (regardless of how that sounds like), etc. tend to think for themselves, be more creative and more critical.

Obviously,someone who's willing to risk his and his family life to testify against what he believe is wrong as such a high level is predisposed to have at least some similar past.

but then again, we do derive from the point, thus, yes,smearing works.