How do you become a legitimate professor without getting an education? It’s an interesting problem. The only way is if you worked backwards and came up with a major discovery so important that people can’t look at the world the same way. But even then, legitimacy is squishy. You’d always be discounted by some.

Yes, it’s possible to make intellectual contributions without formal education, but it’s extraordinarily difficult. You don’t have mentors, guidance, or a path. The truth is, most people follow the route—PhD, publications, tenure—because it’s recognizable.

There are exceptions—people like the inventor of Ozempic or someone like MrBeast, but those paths are highly unusual. Unless you have extraordinary resources, create a lab, and produce real discoveries in the public domain, you’ll face an uphill battle. For most, the challenge isn’t brilliance—it’s legitimacy, and that’s hard to earn without the traditional path.