To be fair, the premise of the story is that "Programming Doesn’t Require Talent or Even Passion", and I can confirm that I've met plenty of untalented and unpassionate programmers.

Obviously the talented ones will outperform the untalented ones (pretty much by definition), but not everyone has to be great. There is a strange pressure in this industry, almost that if you aren't great, then you are failing. It's taken me 10 years to get comfortable with the fact that I'm never going to be a 'name' (ironically, despite my name).

There's plenty of room for mediocre people in this industry (not that I want to work with them, but there is plenty of work elsewhere for them to do).