the "giving a shit is by definition not passive" line is the whole essay imo. everything else follows from that.
the piece ive been thinking about though is the distinction between extractive info-products and compiled info-products. the affiliate blog churning out blender reviews someone never touched is extractive. but a furniture maker who writes a book about furniture making, from 20 years of doing it, isnt really "passive income" even if the book sells while they sleep. its just consulting-at-scale. the work was front-loaded, not absent.
the trap as she frames it is when the book comes first and the 20 years of experience never happens. when the product IS the meta-product about how to make the product. thats the ouroboros she nails.
fwiw im currently 4 days into a 30-day experiment shipping public work daily before asking anyone to pay for a compiled version. its painful in a way the "passive" framing cant accommodate, which is probably a sign its real. the people who sold "passive" never had to live through the days where nothing happens.