No need to get so worked up, @Rutin.  What @Fulcrum.013 is saying doesn’t make him or her insightful, it simply makes him or her wrong.  At one point he or she made this claim:

3 hours ago, Fulcrum.013 said:

To understend a task field people need a fundamental basis in math that only university able to give.

Since the above is factually false (where did they learn before universities? Who taught Newton?  Since math describes the universe, it is open for exploration equally to all, and it is entirely possible to teach one’s self, even if that means reading a book), @Fulcrum.013 seems to want to take a hard-line stance on what is required to be a programmer for some kind of ego boost, most likely to say, “Grr!  I went through the time and money and I can’t accept how much of a waste it is so I will pretend it was the most essential thing in the universe!!”

You should not let someone work you up who has his or her own entirely different set of motives when offering “advice,” and @Fulcrum.013’s goal here is clearly only to shame anyone who was smart enough to follow through with the purpose of school (to get a job) and thus to stop school before it gets needlessly time-consuming and expensive.

It’s just important that the people reading his or her posts realize this as well.


L. Spiro

10 minutes ago, L. Spiro said:

Who taught Newton?

While I do agree with you @L. Spiro ... sigh ... I have to be perfectionist now.

Isaac Newton studied on The Kings School in Grantham (1655 - 1660), then Trinity College in Cambridge (1661 - 1665, where he finished BA, and school was closed due to Great Plague), and later in 1667 he returned to Cambridge to finish MA (which he finished in 1669).

Note: To be fair though, unless you're interested in physics and history, this is not really a common knowledge.

5 hours ago, L. Spiro said:

It’s just important that the people reading his or her posts realize this as well.

Just read a math related questions on phorum where topic starter ever dont know how called required branch of math, while have must-know to pass first homeworks by it branch question.  And it majority of "need help" questions on phorum. If you guess that persons that ask its questions able to develop software themself you is very very wrong.

5 hours ago, L. Spiro said:

“Grr!  I went through the time and money and I can’t accept how much of a waste it is so I will pretend it was the most essential thing in the universe!!”

For first i has studied for government cost. And for main - how much per hour you smart enought to make without fundamental knowledges? On some projects i has made up to $250 per hour (at its years it was a average montly salary here). And i has make it becouse i has exactly know how to research a task field and find a way of solution fast.

If you are focused only on bragging rather than helping then you should not post.  This is no longer in the realm of just giving a personal example to buttress your point; you’re only trying to compete now and it is not helpful.
People do not only chase money, and clearly what you think is important in life is not a consideration shared by many.

To the original poster, do not get mislead.  Salary is not the most important thing in the world, and even if it were luck is equally a factor.  Nothing about a degree guarantees success or salary, and likewise having no degree does not guarantee low success and salaries.
All of life is a balancing act between what skills you equip yourself with, how you position yourself (when and where), and how well you spot micro-opportunities that add up (for example knowing early on that you need to stay close to someone (and later ending up making the deal of a lifetime because of said contact)).  Whether you pursue money or whatever else, there are always multiple routes there.

4 minutes ago, JoeJ said:

What would be some examples related to game development?

Imagine all the physically based rendering research being done.  I worked with Yoshiharu Gotanda (a popular researcher in this field who frequently gives talks at Siggraph and releases new rendering algorithms: http://research.tri-ace.com/) at tri-Ace and he is a mathematical genius (hence his works and contributions).
He also dropped out of high school and did not attend a university.


L. Spiro

42 minutes ago, JoeJ said:

What would be some examples related to game development?

Game dev is whole example. About any algo used in graphics, phisics, AI and so on was firstly described on PhD tesises. For example ever basic Phong and Gurau shading has been inventend as result of researches completing wich authors obtained a PhD degree.

1 hour ago, Awoken said:

This can play into a person's confidence in even attempting to cut out on their own and become self employed. 

Really for software development industry locally (excluding a primitive monkey web dev) it 2 options only -  1. you have a Engineer qualification that require a Specialist degree (5 years of university). 2 You is out of software development at all. BA that have 3 years of colledge on high school basis or 4 years on secondary school basis have Technecian qualification, and usually not involved into software development at all. (works on support teams, data entry area, and so on ). And its especially actually for FA and gamedev fields, that have highest into industry salaries here, but have a top into industry demands to candidates for employment. For FA it regulated by lows, for gamedev it just a reality of industry (it not many successfull gamedev companies here,  bat all of it uses a high-end self-made  propientary engines made by teams of top-grade developers)