Today is the first day since quitting my cushy Bank coding job on Friday. I'm uncertain about the future now, but I feel so happy about coding for me, for fun.
Maybe your stereotypes don't help all that much. The guy who filed the suit against the NSA, aka the one that was recently vindicated, was filed by a Republican.
The degree has helped me very little in getting a job. I mean, the most it did was strike up some conversation during my job interviews, but that's about it...and that's okay.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of philosophy to my day-time coding, as trite as this might sound, is that it helps me think clearly and in a structured way.
Honestly, its the same for all programming languages. Just find a project in that language and start coding. I feel like the best way to learning programming languages is the same as human languages, organically.