I'm certainly trying. I am a CS dropout and feel like I'm lacking a good bit of theory (algorithms and math specifically). I gobble up what I can find that actually makes theory applicable/interesting.
I too am a CS dropout, and am grateful every single day for having dropped out. I learn more in a week of working at the startup I'm at than I did in a month of college. I'm only 3 months into doing real-world professional development, but I believe that this will still be true a year from today, and I hope that it will still be true 10 years down the line. I too am lacking in some of the theoretical stuff, and have found MIT's open courseware (their intro to algorithms course: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput... ) to be incredibly useful in supplementing what I missed while in school. I've also heard good things about Khan academy but haven't checked it out yet.
I'm a high school drop out and had a very similar reaction to yours for the first couple of years. Thing is this: industry teaches you process and refinement; not (or rarely) theory. You must obtain some sort of abstract theoretical foundation to be a "fantastic" programmer - whether you do that through self-education or a formal education doesn't matter.
I've personally taken the former route - rigorous self directed learning with a dash of discipline and love for the knowledge will turn you into something far greater than what could be elicited from you by "just going through the motions" at a college.
Granted. I'll probably be going to college soon anyways because I want to pursue Aerospace - but that's, again, self inspired (rather than "ZOMG I NEED TO GOTO SCHOOL OR MY PARENTS WON'T KEEP PAYING MY RENT" - not saying all people are like that, I know more likely than not most people are self-sufficient; I said that more in line with how parents tend to enforce college on their kids instead of letting them be inspired to the action).
