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If the basic capabilities are present the thing that matters is motivation.

Self-taught naturally correlates with motivation (as well as a few other mixed traits).

It's neither a cause or guarantee of performance, but it can be very useful information to know about candidates when recruiting.

(as someone who is largely self-taught and done a bit of the recruiting and management thing)



Being self taught also selects for the ability to learn autonomously. Which is very important in software.




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