Well, as the title suggest I am actually a self-taught dev, so through this post, I will try to explain from my perspective the pros and cons of being one.

Pros

• You become more disciplined (generally talking, even in life)

• You learn whatever you want, without being subjected to following any scholarly path with unnecessary topics

• You can study at whatever time of the day

* I didn't explain any of the points above simply because they are self-explanatory

Cons

• You don't have tutors and even classmates, which makes it very difficult to determine your own capabilities and weaknesses

• You don't have any guide, so you keep learning unnecessary stuff and wasting your time

• You get frustrated after a time of being self-taught because when you explore a topic you almost always find out that there are a lot of other issues you don't know and even complete ignore, which makes really hard to know if you are able to fit in a job position (finally declining in impostor syndrome)

• If you are completely self-taught and you don't have any related diploma, you have to be the best developer while trying to search job, otherwise, you are not going to be taken seriously by anyone (mainly, while trying to find your first job)

* Being entirely self-taught is harder than it seems, and I don't really recommend

Conclusion

If you are able to study at a university, or even a Bootcamp do it. You will surely avoid a lot of troubles, and if you decide to go self-taught, good luck and keep strong even if it is a hard way to get the knowledge I have to say that it is gratifying.