Peter Thiel, Facebook’s first big backer, thinks the future of global innovation may hinge on more entrepreneurial college drop-outs - Innovation Economy - Boston.com
I went to college and some grad school. The American education system is modeled after an industrial era society that no longer exists. At best, it teaches you to acquire a skill efficiently that you will then employ just hard enough to not get fired from some job you have between 9-5.
If you are really serious about doing anything, just go do it. In 2010 if you are a self-starter and autodidactic you have this freedom.
If you want to learn to be a coder you have the resources and network at your fingertips to do so for free, and likely will be far better at it given equal time and effort than if you went through a year + worth of prerequisites to get to that class on Python, Linux or Ruby. Same if you want to be a daytrader, affiliate marketer, etc.
FWIW- I've gone back and taken classes in Computer Science at a local community college. MNGT classes are bullshit and a waste of time. Comp Sci expanded my mind and helped me see opportunities I probably wouldn't have thought of before. But so far neither has ever put an extra dollar in my wallet that wouldn't have already been there.