It was kind of a flash in the pan moment where you could leave your retail floor manager job, crash course this thing called "javascript" in a 3 month class, and then get hired for a six figure remote job if you could choke out a mildly competent github repo.

Exactly. I don’t know why folks take so much offense to it. You could absolutely do just as you describe. Spend 3-4 hours truly working while enjoying the lunch today sessions and in-house lunch and barista. I definitely benefited from this and I am not ashamed of it but absolutely it was this weird moment in time.