[J2K]

Feel like some of the other comments are sort of missing the point of the article although the author probably could have been clearer in what his point was.

My take is that this is targeted toward people without any sort of traditional/university CS background trying to get into tech from scratch and in addition to taking a basic javascript course or whatever are following the standard advice you hear of "you need to have some side projects to get employers attention." Think its just trying to give some pointers to people going down that path with the very specific larger goal of it leading to a full time job.

So ya, I would bet the author would probably agree that side projects are almost valuable in and of themselves, but some are going to be more likely then others to lead towards a full time position, etc.