I would argue not programmer, but perhaps computer scientist.

They are fundamentally different things to me. Programming, and its human facilitator, the programmer, can certainly be learned without a degree. I can teach myself to program fairly well in say, Python, in a few months.

What I can't teach easily, in my opinion or rather what can't be taught easily without some uni resources (going to college, maybe not, but to be honest i think the learning format has some advantages here), is say how to proof formal methods, Computational geometry, higher levels of information theory. Quantum Computing. all realms of computer science. Yes, lots and lots of CS depts teach you how to program in languages, but the ones I find that don't burn out in the long term aren't merely programmings, but have a strong understanding of the discrete mathematics that make up a lot of our modern systems.

I could go on, but I feel like its going to go into rant like an old grump territory.

I do have a bone to pick with this particular article as well:

"I will write separate articles on Data Science Books (I’ve read 127 of those in last six months)"

Unless those books are 20 pages long, you have not read them. Skimmed maybe, but completely read and logically understand the implications of those books? I have to call foul on this.

I personally learned programming on my own, and after about two years of doing it, I went back and started taking some computer science courses in data structures, discrete mathematics, algorithms as well as some other topics. I took some coursework through the University I got my undergrad from but most through local community colleges because they were 1/10th of the cost.

In my experience, I do not think you need a degree to be a programmer. You need to have extreme grit and motivation to learn it on your own.

I took the coursework after doing it because trying to learn advanced computer science topics on top of work in my own time simply wasn't working. It's not incredibly fun to learn, dissect and implement algorithms. At least for me it wasn't. Having no one to ask about advanced mathematics also sucked honestly. For those reasons, a quality education or professor is worth their weight in gold.