Not really. The author is advocating to not be too attached from an ego perspective to an idea and trying different things to see what actually works. That's different from saying you can't do what you love and expect to make money.
Well this is a graduate level course so I wouldn't say it doesn't require any degree or work experience. In general the numbering scheme at CMU is xx-yyy where xx is the department code (15 for CS department) and yyy is the course number (where 500 and above is graduate level).