I taught myself too. In 1978 I was a first year electrical engineer student in university. The first two years of our program were common to mechanical and civil engineers so there was no circuitry being taught yet. I was impatient to get into circuitry for myself.

I discovered the MITS Altair and IMSI home computer kits (pre Apple era) and took a part time job with an Oil Company to save enough money for a S100 computer kit (about $1200 US at that time).

I bought a Cromemco Z2 and a Miniterm Associates graphics card. In 1979, that was quite powerful. I didn't have a compiler, assembler, nor floppy drive. I learned to solder all my boards together and assemble the computer. I learned to read the schematics, design my circuits, why programs in machine code, disassemble the graphics card routines for useful calls...

While my early grades then may have suffered a little, I figured everything out before my coursework caught up with these topics. That home computer hobby had more to do with my career path than my prestigeous degree. In fairness, the degree had more to do with my income. :)

In my opinion the best teacher is a hard process and determination.

aka j