> He was later tracked by a journalist who revealed quite a bit of additional personal info about him and his family, in a disparaging article (he "wasn’t a great coder"). She ended up finding his current employer and one of his colleagues told her to leave him alone, that’s where the Wikipedia line comes from.
Having been trained and worked as a journalist, I nonetheless always wonder what's the purpose of revelations like this. He wasn't a public figure, his anonymity didn't cause the society (nor the community of Ruby programmers?) any harm. Seems like there was actually no real public interest to justify publishing those details about his persona.
_why was no more famous than someone who writes for a newspaper under her own name. For a journalist to advocate privacy violation and do so practice …sounds like she is creating a world she would not feel safe to live in.
_why, expecting to remain anonymous, had also shared personal info about his family intermingled in the rest of his fiction prose. This may be why he vanished when his real identity was leaked.
I thought at the time that these accounts were fictional too, but I learned they weren't when the journalist revealed it, not understanding she had crossed further boundaries.
Having been trained and worked as a journalist, I nonetheless always wonder what's the purpose of revelations like this. He wasn't a public figure, his anonymity didn't cause the society (nor the community of Ruby programmers?) any harm. Seems like there was actually no real public interest to justify publishing those details about his persona.
EDIT: Also interesting: excerpts from _why's literary mashup "Closure" where he describes the kafkaesque motives behind his decisions: https://kev.town/2013/04/30/why-did-why-the-lucky-stiff-quit...