Strangely enough our best programmers did not go to school at all or graduated in a completely different field. I don't know how they find them.
I agree that computer folks are a bit different. I mean Gates did not graduate from Harvard and still find success, but those are very far and few between. It is like being a football player or basketball player at 13 and putting your entire life into only to find out that only a very small percentage actually make it. A VERY VERY small percentage of people with little education are going to be successful at least like Gates.
They stick a Mountain Dew and copy of Wired under a box, with a trip wire attached. When they come back, the ones that haven't tried to escape the trap are keepers. If you are looking for desktop techs, about half the time you can replace the Dew and Wired with Jack Daniels and porno and get the same results.
I’m not the least bit surprised. I never finished high school, taught myself how to program, bluffed my way into a job where I learned a lot and have made a good living ever since. I never had the patience for classroom learning but have been to a lot of useful short courses and seminars.