There are many examples of inspiring stories like this. But I tend to think these are the exceptions rather than the rule. And I'm willing to bet most of the people doing the design and engineering at Learjet have college degrees in Engineering.
And the same is true at Bill Gate's Microsoft. While Bill Gates never finished college, his company is full of the best and brightest who came from the best institutions in America and across the world.
And while there are the Bill Lear's, there are also many like Andy Groves, who got his Ph.D in Engineering and co-founded Intel Corp.
People who haven't gone to college can be innovative, but I think its stretch to say they are MORE innovative. Most marketable patents are developed in corporations and college institutions. And they are produced by people with advanced college degrees.
I do agree, that some innovations are best done outside of a college setting. Bill Ruger, for example, did something innovative by building gun parts out of cast steel instead of forged steel. But I hardly think that is comparable, in the grand scheme of things, to tens of thousands of engineers developing a smaller and smaller CPU at Intel.
There is a magazine, which name escapes my recall right now, which is dedicated to useful inventions created by farmers. Yes, you read that correctly - farmers. No doubt a few of those fellows have been to college, but that is besides the point I was trying to make.
A cultural and social environment must be conducive to inventiveness for inventions to occurr regularly. A culture and society where individuality is discouraged to the point of criminal punishment is going to find it difficult to conjure innovation.
Our colleges and universities no longer encourage exchanges of ideas as only “preapproved” ideas are allowed on campuses.