> "often finding formal education diabolical"

TBH, as a self-educated developer, I perceive formal education as a premature optimization.

It's a fact that one needs to develop certain skills and gain insight from the knowledge that reflects the experience of expert people, but it's also a fact that one won't need everything the first moment after graduation.

I prefer to research and learn about something the moment I need it, than to be forced to learn it (and probably forget about it) some years in advance.

Anyway... The first skill you need to develop to become self-educated is self-confidence, because nobody is going to believe in you. I have been accused of being an idiot numerous times for dropping college...

The point of an education is not to make money. The point of an education is to cultivate yourself and make yourself a better person. Idiot is the wrong word, but philistine is appropriate.

Well having been through plenty of formal education, I can assure you the point of education is to make uniformly cut cogs and make teachers and universities money.

If you don't turn the same way as everyone else or risk your university's funding by having an opinion or a better idea than the status quo, you're no longer entitled to an education.

University for me was an exercise in cock sucking rather than education and that was a UK red brick.

Attending school is not the only way to cultivate yourself and make yourself a better person; knowledge is vast and free.

You're definitely not an idiot. I applaud your approach and wish you all the best in the future.