Reading this article I have had a couple of thoughts.
1) I'm pretty sure this can only apply mostly to people who are lucky enough to enjoy writing and have writing as their job. I am a Writer or a Poet but I am not lucky enough to have regular assignments. I am not lucky enough to have assignments at all. If I want to write, and therefore by extention consider myself a writer (because you cannot consider yourself a do-er of a thing if you are not doing that thing) then I have to write - on my own.
2) Additionally, seriously, just because you've done well in school doesn't mean you're at the top of your game. Yes I was in the top third of my poetry writing class by ability. But that didn't mean by any stretch of the measure that I was as good as Pablo Neruda, e. e. cummings, Louise Gluck.
I say, that if there are people out there who would like to think they are writers but can't convince themselves to write an article by the deadline, good for them. I hope they get fired. I hope that their job spots open up...for someone like me.