There are places where passion isn’t enough, only performance is what counts. The NBA, Recurse Center, Navy Seals, etc.
Most people don't have the skills Julia and the other people the original post mentioned. They're honestly the 1% of RC's over 1k (I think!) students over the years. Most of us have little projects that we work on for 12 weeks in a great environment or learn new things. Most of us are normal people who are lucky enough to be able to study programming for 12 weeks in NYC.