A formal education, in any domain, forces you to explore areas of knowledge that may not be directly applicable to immediate 'real world' problems. It does however give you the background to identify and explore those areas when you approach something that does overlap with work that people have spent literal lifetimes considering ahead of you.
I say this as someone without a formal CS education but has been working with computers for some time. I've spent countless hours, days, and months playing catch-up on that knowledge when I stumble into those blindspots.
A formal education, in any domain, forces you to explore areas of knowledge that may not be directly applicable to immediate 'real world' problems. It does however give you the background to identify and explore those areas when you approach something that does overlap with work that people have spent literal lifetimes considering ahead of you.
I say this as someone without a formal CS education but has been working with computers for some time. I've spent countless hours, days, and months playing catch-up on that knowledge when I stumble into those blindspots.