I haven't met self-taught programmers who learned much theory (CS, math, physics, etc). I bet there are some, but I guess they are rare.
Theory gets useful if you want to tackle harder problems. If you aren't aware of the theory, you often don't know what you are missing. As an ex-dropout, I was in that position for a long time.
Going out on a limb now, big company with little respect for theory -> Microsoft, big company with healthy respect for theory -> Google.
You can do fine without theory, but its getting harder (and will continue to).
Theory gets useful if you want to tackle harder problems. If you aren't aware of the theory, you often don't know what you are missing. As an ex-dropout, I was in that position for a long time.
Going out on a limb now, big company with little respect for theory -> Microsoft, big company with healthy respect for theory -> Google.
You can do fine without theory, but its getting harder (and will continue to).