I wonder how much of the median bootcamper is disappointing pattern is from a strong selection effect. Programming is interesting and easy for some and boring and hard for others. People for whom it’s easy are somewhat more likely to have found it via a non-bootcamp path.

If cooking suddenly became very lucrative and I went to a culinary bootcamp right now, I’d almost surely be a failure at a career change in that direction in large part because for 40+ years of being exposed to cooking, I showed no significant prior interest.