I completely agree with you bcfcredandwhite, it's not the best metric of intelligence, as I said in my first post on it. And anecdotally, I've had the same experiences as you. But I still stand by the fact that you'd do well do be completely and utterly stupid and still get a degree from one of the leading universities in the world.
Particularly in IT, someone who is self-taught through some sort of passion for the subject tends to go far, far further than the others and be far more useful, so I can completely relate.
Absolutely. I want trying to suggest that qualifications were meaningless - just that they can be misleading sometimes.
I know we are going a bit ‘off piste’ with this - and I have to be very careful with my words here, but I work a lot with our IT partners in India. Many are very highly qualified - with doctorates in Computer Science and other high academic credentials. However, if you give them a blank sheet of paper and tell them to develop their own solutions, they panic - they need processes to follow and everything written down. Their education system has taught them how to pass exams - not how to think (and I fear that’s what we are starting to do over here).
I’m generalising again of course, but this particularly applies to the majority of the Indian contractors that I work with. It may be a cultural thing too - they are reluctant to challenge anything or anyone - their culture is so hierarchical it sometimes makes me cringe and they are so terrified of making a mistake that they won’t do anything that isn’t a recognised process.
One common trait that they possess though, with very few exceptions, is they are extremely polite and respectful. Genuinely lovely people who can’t do enough for you.

you could really go off some people