Because CS education is in its infancy and the material changes so fast, we can’t expect college to be comprehensive. Rather than structured learning, we rely on people who are peripherally exposed to various topics to have the “spark” to become curious about them and go deeper.

To a first order approximation, someone who has been into computers their whole life has that “spark” as second nature. Someone who sees programming as “just a job” is probably not going to explore any more than necessary to fulfill the requirements of the task at hand. Sometimes less. This makes the curious more effective at approaching harder problems, and puts them in a position to spot potential improvements even on mundane problems.

I see this firsthand at work. My careerist colleagues are lovely people and capable of doing the work assigned to them, but it’s the lifelong computer nerds who solve the really knobby problems and push us forward.