Most of us can work really well with people of different ages, interests, family structures, backgrounds, political persuasions, religious ideas, and popular media choices. Different approaches to responsibility and how to treat others will kill a partnership; Different TV tastes, not so much.
Work on your project on the side AND take that developer job abroad.
A SaaS can take years to build to a point where you can even get in to see a real, live seed or angel investor. Live now and keep coding for your future.
Perhaps if art were taught in US schools with the systematic rigor of mathematics and rhetorical essay composition, as it should be, people would cease being surprised that artists exploit technological advances like everyone else. The LAX International Terminal features digital installations, not frescos.
Did Ramses Martinez have the authority to pay people who found issues and instead sent tee shirts? Have people been paid in the past? If yes to both, the "no good deed goes unpunished" and "I'm new here so lay off" response is disingenuous. However, if there was no way Martinez could have paid bounties or no history of payouts, the grumpy response to not being showered with cash is unreasonable. (And perhaps Martinez, et al., already knew of this particular vulnerability.)
"Self taught" is an unhelpful distinction. It is the work itself that teaches. Helpful voices found in university programs, books, and boot camp courses may point you toward useful habits, but there are no shortcuts to experience. At day's end, everyone is self taught.
Think about MySpace and Facebook. Often the first to market doesn't dominate a few years out. Figure out the problem you are solving and do it to the best of your ability. "Appropriate" your competitors' best ideas if they fit with your solution and ignore their bells and whistles if they don't. Even if you are not successful, there is no shame in failing well. Chalk it up to education and try again.
My coworker insists the email address was never validated and no one else ever logged in from this email address. After registering, the account came up with nearly 100 following and followers, none known by my coworker. The standard new user demo never happened. My coworker then changed the user name, and user profile information as a precaution. The actual owner of the account would likely now be able to login or re-register with their user name, but their followers would be gone.
This style of programming also goes by the name "code quilting". Part of the difficulty with moving this workflow method into the classroom is that it requires schools to redefine "cheating."