Over 95% of what I learned - that was of any use - was self-taught.
With a few notable exceptions, of course.
Those exceptions being professional engineering seminars
conducted by corporations like Intel, HP and Oracle.
Got my first software development job when I was 20.
So basically, self-motivation beats the heck out of ANY college degree
in my book.
Same experience here except I stayed with it and finished my BS in CS. As someone who had been reading books and magazines on my own to program a Commodore 64 since I was 14 (I'm showing my age here LOL), when I got to college my first few courses seemed elementary. I even did well in math in high school so I could score high on the placement test (which I did) to satisfy the math prerequisites for the first few CS courses so I could take them in my first quarter (which I did).
But I stayed with it because I had talked to programmers in my area when I was in 11th grade and asked them what kind of training was good both on the resume and in giving me actual skills I wouldn't think to research and learn on my own. They all told me what kind of training was really good (almost all of them said a BS in CS in any of the University of Alabama schools, even an Auburn alum told me that) and if I stayed with it I'd learn a lot in my junior and senior courses (which I did).
So if anyone can do self-motivated learning and combine it with really good training (after vetting from the folks who know what the good training is), it's the best of both worlds.