> Most people who are successful as autodidacts are successful in college,
Yes and no. I had troubles in college every now and then because it interfered with my learning. That is, as soon as I found something more interesting to learn by myself I tended to quit paying attention to classes. It was similar in school too. But I owe it my career - all things programming was what I was doing instead of school assignments.
To some extent, I think I had the opposite problem. University work harmed my enthusiasm for learning on my own.
Once I had to spend significant effort on my assigned work, I felt like I had to use my free time for leisure or I'd be wasting it. Plus any time I felt enthusiasm to learn something else, I'd feel like I ought to be spending that effort on my assigned work instead.
Yes and no. I had troubles in college every now and then because it interfered with my learning. That is, as soon as I found something more interesting to learn by myself I tended to quit paying attention to classes. It was similar in school too. But I owe it my career - all things programming was what I was doing instead of school assignments.