Excellent post, trs80. Note to self: vote ++ tomorrow :-)

I'm kinda hybrid, 'cause I did some courses about programming, besides learning by myself. I'm proud to be "half-autodidact", althrough I always state this:

• I think being an autodidact makes you have some questions that are basic for those who learned from courses - some of you may realized that it happens to me from time to time.
• If you have the resources (time, money, etc) to take a course, TAKE IT. There are somethings that you'll always learn better from a course.

I've been fired from my last job because my boss didn't believed I was capable of coding and never gave me the chance to show him.

That was awful, and to stand up for what I've believed was a very hard but valuable experience. I'm not saying that I'm damn good at programming (I'm certainly not) but I'm capable of developing large systems as efficiently as any other programmer at my level.

Just my thoughts about it.

Best regards,

Er Galvão Abbott
a.k.a. Lobo, DaWolf
Webdeveloper