Formal CS education matters in many cases, but is clearly not a distinguishing factor in many others. It all depends on what it is you're evaluating.
Let's be blunt, 95% of Web 2.0 startup stuff is purely programming. These are practical problems that require practical solutions. Although a CS degree is probably a plus, experience and a few working examples of work are more than likely bigger pluses.
But that's a very specific subset. If you're doing advanced and technically challenging work like say, trying to beat google, the foundation that you gain by having a formal CS degree starts to matter a little more.
I don't think anyone discounts anything, but there are different levels of application depending on the situation.
Formal CS education matters in many cases, but is clearly not a distinguishing factor in many others. It all depends on what it is you're evaluating.
Let's be blunt, 95% of Web 2.0 startup stuff is purely programming. These are practical problems that require practical solutions. Although a CS degree is probably a plus, experience and a few working examples of work are more than likely bigger pluses.
But that's a very specific subset. If you're doing advanced and technically challenging work like say, trying to beat google, the foundation that you gain by having a formal CS degree starts to matter a little more.
I don't think anyone discounts anything, but there are different levels of application depending on the situation.