I feel like anyone who gets popular just suddenly leaves behind the world where you're having to apply via resumes. Github profiles were that personal portfolio for programmers but some people never get theirs looked at. So why is Ben's portfolio better than someone's Github? The answer is likely because people are lazily proxying their assessment of someone through popularity (a successful youtube channel). There is some safety in this (the internet is often a harsher critic than our employers). Popular Github repos have a similar effect though. Plus Valve and Google can afford the time to assess candidates more in depth by actually watching videos or reading code. Other companies cannot, and yet they're asking for passion from you. This is mostly what the author wants to stop.