What do Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lawrence have in common? None of these stars graduated from acting school. In many professions and industries, lack of education does not prevent success. Coco Chanel became a fashion dictator even though she did not do any tailoring course. Also, Henry Ford didn't hang diplomas on his wall because he didn't earn them—instead, he was a great self-taught mechanic. There is no shortage of people without formal education among the IT world's bigwigs either. Michael Dell dropped out of college at the age of 19. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are not even worth mentioning. Today, many programmers follow their example—they don't go to college or they drop out. Is that good or bad? And should such people be employed in software houses like Diligo?
As usual, there are two positions. According to the first, the way to a programming career—and any other—leads through the right schools, diplomas and certificates. This approach is represented by Andrew Keen, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and a fierce critic of the Internet. In his book "The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture," he speaks out against the democratization of electronic media, which equates the layman with the professional, the professor with the high school student. As the author emphasizes, all blogs and online services, as well as Wikipedia, destroy what was previously worked for a long time. Something's up—in the past, in order to comment on political events, you had to graduate from political science, psychological advice was provided only by psychology graduates. Today, anyone can be a commentator or advisor, but the quality of such activity is often low.