I had a similar situation as @adrianpike. *have started a couple different things at hackathons that became side projects. They were honestly more of a distraction then a real project though. If you enjoy it and learn something by continuing to work on ish, then it's probably worth it.
This is a great group of guys, congrats to the team. Startups a hard, very hard. They made a great product and worked on what they love, if they get to continue to work on what they love at Yahoo, more power to them. I just hope they are able to keep their scrappy and inquisitive style.
I'm a recent grad of General Assembly's program, had a good experience, and would definitely recommend a bootcamp for some other people looking to learn quickly.
I totally understand where you are coming from. I really respect the open and helpful culture of the developer community and want to give back without expecting any money. I had tried to learn on my own for awhile but was never able to dedicate the time needed to get to the next level. The course gave me that opportunity and set me up to be able to continue to learn. That said I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, just like I wouldn't recommend college for everyone.