It may not be terribly unique, at least not in my perspective. Because passionate people tend to enjoy doing what they love, even in off hours. Sane people value their off time, so I'm not saying passionate people must work non-stop.
Take a lot of craft trades. Ie, wood working, painting, music, writing, whatever. Those can often be people who just love doing the area, they love creating with their medium. I feel passionate tech people are similar.
The example of a medical professional was.. unfair. Yes, free time usage as a measuring stick for passion in some fields (like medical) is a terrible measuring stick, but I'm not legally inhibited from wood working in my free time.
Note that I'm not at all speaking about whether you should be binary about hiring (passionate people vs non-passionate). I'm simply talking about how in some crafts, crafting outside of work-time is a decent indicator to passion. Another indicator is, I feel, knowledge outside of their professional experience. I'm not a frontend programmer, but I enjoy learning and following tech trends, so I've used and can speak somewhat comfortably with frontend frameworks, my preferences in them, and etc.
Actually the medical example is a pretty good corollary with software. Getting into medical school is extremely competitive, probably harder than getting a job at a top tech company. And while grades are a major part of selection, most schools also want people who spend their free time doing biochemistry research, volunteering in hospitals, running clinical trials. Then once you become a doctor, the amount of time you spend working becomes a big part of how your colleagues judge you—if you just work the minimum to keep your license, other doctors probably won't respect your skill much. The difference is that I guess doctors don't usually practice medicine "for fun" on the side.
Take a lot of craft trades. Ie, wood working, painting, music, writing, whatever. Those can often be people who just love doing the area, they love creating with their medium. I feel passionate tech people are similar.
The example of a medical professional was.. unfair. Yes, free time usage as a measuring stick for passion in some fields (like medical) is a terrible measuring stick, but I'm not legally inhibited from wood working in my free time.
Note that I'm not at all speaking about whether you should be binary about hiring (passionate people vs non-passionate). I'm simply talking about how in some crafts, crafting outside of work-time is a decent indicator to passion. Another indicator is, I feel, knowledge outside of their professional experience. I'm not a frontend programmer, but I enjoy learning and following tech trends, so I've used and can speak somewhat comfortably with frontend frameworks, my preferences in them, and etc.