On the other hand, as an Engish Lit major who taught himself programming from zero, and worked as a programmer for over a decade, all my experience writing software was practical, and I don't think that's the right way to go either. I wish I'd had any level of theoretical education that might have exposed me to fundamental concepts you (with yer fancy book-learnin') probably take for granted. If someone just learns on the job, or just learns as they go, they don't learn stuff until they need to. They learn it in a hurry, and on a deadline. That's not the best way to get a firm handle on tricky subjects, and maybe as a consequence, I always felt a couple steps behind my peers.