Einstein didn't "get started in his spare time" - thoughts about the universe consumed him as a person, to the point where him being "absent minded" was because he was visualizing the universe; his love letters even contained frequent discussions of science. His brain was preserved after his death, and there's been actual work done by multiple groups, with indications he was structurally different than a normal brain.
Einstein did NOT just get started "in his spare time". At all.
You can basically take 101 intro course of any field from great universities. And if you want to go deeper, the advances courses on a university's page usually have syllabus, with recommended readings etc.
But then I remember the reason I love this profession - it allows us to gain deep insights into other fields that we wouldnt normally come into contact with. To build abstract models of real world systems, you have to understand them and understanding is the best form of learning. We naturally become experts in many diverse fields simply by modelling them.
Recently I was made redundant from a long term job and was very hesitant about applying for the cool hip roles that I knew were around, instead I timidly replied to a few linkedin recruiter emails. I was promptly offered jobs working for one of the big banks, online ordering for one of the supermarket chains, and a local government role.
After due consideration, I turned them down and started applying to projects in areas where my skills are needed but I have something to learn as well. Im not interested in retail banking or building another checkout widget for a generic online shopper.
I know way more about the inner workings of anaesthesiology, police procedures, virology, locksmithing, fintech, electoral processes, hotel chains, cruise lines and many other fields that I would never have given two thoughts about.
Software is a craft, and to deliver your products you have to be invited into the customers private space. I find that fascinating and very fulfilling.
(Also, consider that the freedom you gained from what is a pretty good career choice might afford you the free time to discover other things which bring you joy.)
Yes, I will come out in debt, yes I could make more money doing what I do now in the time it would take now, but I don’t particularly care.
From the schools I’m familiar with, there is a minimum number of credits you need to fulfill at that uni. That’s unavoidable.
Sometimes you can test out of courses; other times you can skip pre-reqs by getting the instructor’s permission to enroll.
I’ve finished my last 60 credits (well 4 credits remain this summer term) of a statistics degree at a Canadian uni by attending midterms and finals. I only attended 4 credits worth of classes because 1/3rd of the grade in one 3 credit class was due to in class participation. The 1 credit class was 2/3rds in class participation. The rest, I didn’t go to a single lecture.
I did that part-time while working full-time.
Obviously there are some (many) disadvantages, but I took courses with profs that stuck close to a textbook for the course and I took courses without lab components. 1 course is a humanities course this summer and the remaining courses were stats, math, or comp sci.
I’m not a hacker, so maybe it’s not hackable in the sense you mean.
Most of my initial research was into online programs. I was very surprised by the limited number of good programs offered by “legitimate” schools. These often charged prices that were simply too much even if I continued working full time. Part of this was many still charged out of state tuition rates for online programs (note I cannot even get in state tuition in my state of legal residence right now). Any sort of decent aid was out of the question for reasons that could their own thread. complete undergrad while I’m still in my 20s at least.
However I found a few programs that seemed to have a good quality and were affordable. The problem of course, could I be admitted. As someone who was not school minded when they were younger, I’m definitely not the type of material colleges would usually be interested in admitting. 2 year transfer programs are normally the answer for people like me, but at the time I was not aware of any online AA programs, and while community colleges do offer some evening courses, it could have easily increased the time-cost significantly as I can obviously only take one or two of those a semester and not all classes are offering in that time slot either. Instead, I gambled to see if I could “hack” undergrad admissions by utilizing my time in the industry as replacements for some other criteria. This did not pan out. In fact, of the programs I applied for, only one asked for a copy of my resume, while every one of them was extremely interested in my high school disciplinary record.
Most recently, I did some research and it seemed like I found some AA programs that are fully online in my state. They would guarantee me admission into a 4 year university, which I decided I would be ok to quit working to finish. Then a few days ago I got the acceptance into one of those AA programs only to get suspicious when I looked for certain courses which were certainly not online. As it comes, it seems a number of schools are very vague in whether the AA can be complete “fully online” some including hybrid courses in that definition. I’m not defeated yet as there are other schools which may offer truly online, asynchronous programs. This is important as I cannot get the loans at the moment to quit working and go back full time (in a few years that will likely change, which is why I was fine dropping work to finish the last two years)
TLDR: I’ve been hunting for ways to complete the degree I’m interested in non traditionally (a hack), but every time I’ve found one, it turns out to be too good to be true.