I’ve had PhD’s in computer science work for me that I had to fire after a couple of hours. IMO coders are born to code. My best people are what I call “Mutts”, mutts are guys with no computer science degree who can code rings around anyone else.
And yea, I said “guys”.
back in the 80s/early 90s, the general belief was there is a constant number of quality developers, X, produced every year regardless of the increasing number of students, Y, entering the schools.
formal education isn’t always assumed. many early ‘hackers’ never went to school for it.