A great read, thanks. My experience is slightly different, I would argue that university education - as I experienced it myself last year - is largely obsolete. I believe the best thing besides the paper is probably a wide variety of topics a person gets introduced to which can help make a decision on what to focus on and set a course for the future. I was excited about going to university as a working adult and it has been many years since my formal education ended. At the moment I made the decision, I was already after an online course for a software tester, and I was working for several months on a fascinating course in Unreal Engine and C++, as my dream was always to get into gamedev. I enrolled on a C++ course at a major state university in my city, thinking I might be up to the task at Uni now, with the online courses I was doing in my spare time. However, the university course was a huge disappointment for a number of reasons. The teachers lacked both communication skills and expertise, especially when compared to the online counterparts. The courses were poorly organized, jumping from one topic to another without much sense or flow. We constantly heard we had to do things on our own, which was fair, but I would expect to receive SOME knowledge in the classroom, instead of just being told to look things up at home. I mean, I was used to learning things from the internet and it worked great, but I was expecting to be also taught something at Uni by professionals. I had the impression I was just wasting my time. I decided to quit Uni after the first semester and get my money back. I learned far more in the same time by doing cheap, high quality, well organized online courses than with people that had degrees at the university. When I reach out to my classmates after more than a year now, all of them working adults as well, I am happy with the decision I made. To sum up, again, I would say that a uni degree will probably help choose the direction, but for real, practical knowledge, everything is available online.