The following exert is from the https://archive.org/stream/faif-2.0/faif-2.0_djvu.txt. If you read above this paragraph its clear stallman did not for the purpose of his ego choose the ideology. Its the other way.
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Already renowned for his work with Emacs, Stallman's
ability to match the output of an entire team of Symbolics program-
mers - a team that included more than a few legendary hackers itself
- still stands as one of the major human accomplishments of the In-
formation Age, or of any age for that matter. Dubbing it a "master
hack" and Stallman himself a "virtual John Henry of computer code,"
author Steven Levy notes that many of his Symbolics-employed rivals
had no choice but to pay their idealistic former comrade grudging re-
spect. Levy quotes Bill Gosper, a hacker who eventually went to work
for Symbolics in the company's Palo Alto office, expressing amazement
over Stallman's output during this period:
I can see something Stallman wrote, and I might decide it
was bad (probably not, but somebody could convince me
it was bad), and I would still say, "But wait a minute -
Stallman doesn't have anybody to argue with all night over
there. He's working alone! It's incredible anyone could do
this alone!" 16
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<BEGIN> Already renowned for his work with Emacs, Stallman's ability to match the output of an entire team of Symbolics program- mers - a team that included more than a few legendary hackers itself - still stands as one of the major human accomplishments of the In- formation Age, or of any age for that matter. Dubbing it a "master hack" and Stallman himself a "virtual John Henry of computer code," author Steven Levy notes that many of his Symbolics-employed rivals had no choice but to pay their idealistic former comrade grudging re- spect. Levy quotes Bill Gosper, a hacker who eventually went to work for Symbolics in the company's Palo Alto office, expressing amazement over Stallman's output during this period:
I can see something Stallman wrote, and I might decide it was bad (probably not, but somebody could convince me it was bad), and I would still say, "But wait a minute - Stallman doesn't have anybody to argue with all night over there. He's working alone! It's incredible anyone could do this alone!" 16 <END>