In every era in recent times there has been one profession that for a short while you could enter without formal training. Autodidacts in the 19th century could read the law without recourse to formal education (see Abe Lincoln). In the early 20th century it was aviation. For a short while in the 1980s and early 1990s, it was computing, thanks to the release of the Apple IIe, the IBM PC and the Mac. Were it not for that Window® of opportunity, I hate to think what would have become of me. (Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?) But I was very lucky, when I became serious about learning to program all i needed was a book on the 8088 and a book on C, and I was all set to Rock and Roll.