I have thrown papers... I GED'd my way out of high school a year early ('cuz I was bored), and did one semester at the local JC, done the short order cook thing, made Sale! signs at JC Penney. And I sold computers. In that last job, I started teaching myself coding. I moved boxes for Clorox, did data entry for AT&T and Pac Bell, and was a shipping clerk. I taught myself 6502 assembly, and did game platform translations.

Then I went on to doing Tech Support. I think every programmer should be made to do 2 years of tech support as part of getting a CS degree. It gives you a very different view of software.

Almost everything I use in either of my careers, I taught myself.

I think I tend to have more respect for those who fought they're way through it too.