John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:

It was a nickname given to me in the early 80's because a) for the most part, I taught myself to code, and b) I enjoyed writing code that "experts" said couldn't or didn't need to be written.

Funny enough, I was declined from an MS position because I "seemed too much of a code cowboy". Upon hearing that, I said that was an apt description... and reminded them that the west was won by us cowboys.