The flip side of this is really unfortunate, though. Sometimes people don't feel passion about the fundamental underpinnings of something they feel passionate

The flip side of this is really unfortunate, though. Sometimes people don't feel passion about the fundamental underpinnings of something they feel passionate about, e.g. they want to build brain interfaces but throw a tantrum when you try to teach them about biochemistry. Eventually they do learn the underpinnings of their passion, but are left with gaps in their knowledge which means they simply don't see solutions. Human intelligence is just pattern matching, and you do better pattern matching when you memorize a bunch of stuff even if it's boring. The other part is that sometimes stuff just sucks to learn/do and it must get done-- metaphorically, taking out the trash, cleaning etc. Somebody that does all the fun stuff and disappears when it's time do do the boring stuff is a liability. Doing only stuff that one feels passion about is a privilege that very few people are skilled/fortunate abough to enjoy.