As a self-taught software developer, yeah, it's kinda true. I've encountered developers that are older than me, have more experience as me, has multiple degrees, yet they're dumb as bricks when it comes to anything remotely related to problem solving (or not using genai to do all the work for them, which I think is absolutely disgusting).
I learnt everything I know about programming from buggering around, and just making cool stuff. Then you'll get annoyed how past-you wrote it, and then you'll rewrite it and you'll learn how to make better code & better projects. Most engineers/devs I know that was taught at a university or college can't really do that, and most I know take ages to make anything that can be used (or even shown off as a demo to your boss). Some of this could also just be that there's usually a higher chance for self-taught engineers/devs to be neurodivergent of some sort (adhd/autism), because I am myself and I know that my different perspective does give people a breath of fresh air when working on projects.
I learnt everything I know about programming from buggering around, and just making cool stuff. Then you'll get annoyed how past-you wrote it, and then you'll rewrite it and you'll learn how to make better code & better projects. Most engineers/devs I know that was taught at a university or college can't really do that, and most I know take ages to make anything that can be used (or even shown off as a demo to your boss). Some of this could also just be that there's usually a higher chance for self-taught engineers/devs to be neurodivergent of some sort (adhd/autism), because I am myself and I know that my different perspective does give people a breath of fresh air when working on projects.