I am a programmer by profession and I have a degree in computer science. My college taught me probably 1% of what i know, 99% of my knowledge is by suggestions from strangers on internet. You asked who those those strangers are. I don't know, that why they are called strangers. When i came across "How to be a Hacker" by eric raymond. It taught me how to learn on internet(asking questions). Then book suggestions from strangers on internet(examle: stackoverflow recommended books for programming) helped a lot to widen the knowledge. And for inspiration watching live 10+hr straight coding by George Hotz, direct replies from my heros John Carmack, Jonathon Blow on twitter and youtube comments is doing a pretty good job. I have done a few courses over coursera, and currently learning category theory. Internet education wins big easily over college education. May be college is required to inspire people but not educate them. That is obsoleted, because internet does that much better job.