not necessarily. you can learn about web design, php, html, and other programming languages etc yourself. but it's extremely hard to do. much harder than taking classes and learning from actual people. as much as strobe probably knows (I'm guessing about business and computer science.. possibly php and web design), most of what he learned was probably a combination of teaching & self discovery. Self discovery alone won't get you very far in comparison... it's just straight up easier to have someone else who knows what they're doing teach you, in any field. If you don't want to pay for school... go to the library... and good luck with that, lol. see you in 10-15 years when you finally know as much as what took me 4 years to learn.