Self-Taught Programmers vs CS-Educated Programmers
The one difference I see is that CS Educated Programmers that went to good schools took a lot of math.<p>I have met very few self-taught programmers that also happen to be self-taught mathematicians.  This limits the type of code you can write.<p>Linear algebra is required to deeply understand computer graphics.<p>Calculus is required anywhere you have signal processing.  This means audio and video editing.<p>Physics is required for simulation software and video games.<p>Discrete and combinatorial math is required in systems software like databases.<p>You're just not going to hit these issues if what you do all day is glue Javascript and Ruby together.