I don't feel like I need to explain his motive for posting on SE since the original story doesn't address it either (since he's already fired and seems to have

I don't feel like I need to explain his motive for posting on SE since the original story doesn't address it either (since he's already fired and seems to have given up. Why is he posting is still an open question even if you believe the original story.) Why he chose to post is a separate issue. People have any number of motives for doing things, and what you believe to be reasonable explanations depends on how you think about human psychology. Personally I have seen enough people post lies online that I don't even worry about what the motives are anymore. I just look at what I think is more likely; is this story true or not? This story reeks to me. There's no way some unknown person resigned for him. Either he did it and regretted it or this whole story is made up. Both of those are way simpler than the claim that some unknown person logged into his secure email and that the company reacted so nonchalantly to him telling them he didn't do it. If someone hated him enough to write a fake resignation letter and risk their own career like that, he would know who it was. Frankly it's one of the more obvious fake stories on HN in a while.