6 ms·

Can someone write an explanation for why this is important? Who is this person?

teraflop 15y ago
At the risk of being terse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff
- RobertHubert 15y ago
  http://www.vimeo.com/5047563 http://www.vimeo.com/5047563
  - technoweenie 15y ago
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du_RTMmofWM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du_RTMmofWM
SkyMarshal 15y ago
Why The Lucky Stiff is a mercurial enigma wrapped in a riddle shrouded in mystery. He wrote these crazy awesome ebooks on Ruby, among other things, put it all out on the Internet, then when it got popular he tried to retract and delete it all and disappear. He only succeeded at the latter though, his books live on. But people still wonder where he went, and hope that one day he'll resurface. This post title implied he has, but alas, it's misleading.
- philwelch 15y ago
  That's not entirely true. why was happy to remain in the public eye long after he and his book gained notoriety. What you don't mention is his prolific open source work, including the html/xml parser hpricot. why's disappearance seemed to happen just as nokogiri, a technically superior parser, became prominent, though why's motives will never be known for sure. why's last tweets include: "caller asks, “should i use hpricot or nokogiri?” if you’re NOT me: use nokogiri. and if you’re me: well cut it out, stop being me." "if you program and want any longevity to your work, make a game. all else recycles, but people rewrite architectures to keep games alive."
  - oemera 15y ago
    I don't know much about _why but as I read all the stories about his disappearing I can't help but think he had serious problems in his life. To take it personally and go away only because your code is getting old and slow while other learned from it and wrote something better is IMO wrong! You should also learn from libraries and go on write something new and challenge yourself again. Giving up because of a loses match is just not ok. I also find it pretty odd that no-one seems to know what he is doing now. What about all of his friends? Do they also don't where he is? But I think if someone puts so much energy in hidden himself he shouldn't be found anyway.
    - enneff 15y ago
      He was "unmasked" at one point. Last I heard - shortly after his disappearance - he was alive and employed. My take on his disappearance is that he just wanted to bow out of the limelight. Fair enough, IMO.
      - oemera 15y ago
        Thanks for this. I can understand that people want to get out of the light because not everybody can take that.
        16s 15y ago
        Some people have jobs where it's discouraged to stand-out or draw attention outside of work. Doing so is looked-down upon and may lead to reprimand or termination. I have no idea if this was the case for _why, I just want to point that out.
        oemera 15y ago
        Yeah can imagine there are jobs where it is required to stay "hidden". I think it is very interesting cause most times you can make a name in communities when good and at the same time popular people from the community are working for your company. On the other side there are plenty of people who did or still do a lot to be popular in the community. Last but not least I think the guy has earned some rest.
- jackowayed 15y ago
  As well as the books, he also wrote a few fairly-widely-used Ruby libraries, often with quirks. (eg. Camping, the web framework whose goal is to always have its codebase stay under 4kB)
- masklinn 15y ago
  > He wrote these crazy awesome ebooks on Ruby And interesting libraries and tools (Camping, Hpricot, Redcloth, Syck, Shoes, unHoly — a Ruby to Python compiler, TryRuby and Hackety Hack). He also looks like the old Jack Black (with hair and beard, Tenacious-D Era)
wisty 15y ago
why (with an underscore) was a cool pseudonymous Ruby programmer / writer, who completely disappeared. He's like the Bobby Fisher of programming, without the crazy. (OK, he sounds a little ... artistic, but that's not really crazy). Some people say he stopped writing because he was in danger of being "outed" by people trying to find his identity. Or maybe he got sick of Ruby, and wanted to do something else (without the burden of fame). Or he's still working under another identity and persona. The whole mystery thing is typical of him - he likes bringing a bit of wonder into the world.
- nikcub 15y ago
  I don't blame him for disappearing. The entire cult that appeared around him was completely against a lot of what he talked about.
  - wyclif 15y ago
    I like to think of _why today living a quiet, reclusive life in Pennsylvania with his wife and children, peacefully working on his own projects and art.
- mtogo 15y ago
  > He's like the Bobby Fisher of programming W H A T!? How is _why in any way the Bobby Fisher of programming? Bobby Fischer was a famous, amazing chess player. _why is a person that writes code and some people (some Ruby developers, rather) look up to. They're not comparable in any way.
  - jarin 15y ago
    Bobby Fischer was famous, among chess players. _why was famous, among rubyists. The only difference is they didn't make a movie about _why.
    - anthonyb 15y ago
      yet :)
pygy_ 15y ago
He's a top notch high and low-level programmer with excellent taste for API design (and a language geek). He's also a talented poet/writer, painter/cartoonist/web designer and composer/singer/musician. From ~2002 to 2009, he released a tremendous amount of material (dozens of code projects, thousands of blog posts), then disappeared abruptly, deleting almost everything he had ever published. His blog posts were humorous yet insightful. His libraries were excellent, some of his snippets were completely baffling. The libraries were always artfully and pedagogically documented. He wrote in 2005 an essay lamenting the high barier of entry to programming for children in the 2000's whereas Basic was available in every 8/16bit computers when he was a kid. From then on, he tried to improve the situation: first by writing his Poignant guide to Ruby, then by writing http://http://tryruby.org/ http://http://tryruby.org/, the first online REPL, wrapped in an interactive tutorial. At last, he started the Hackety Hack project: an development environment to teach programming to children. Extremely creative, he (used to?) consider programming to be an art in and of itself, but frequently mixed genres too. His programming book is illustrated with cartoons, fantastic stories and has a sound track that illustrates either the code, the stories, or the book writing process itself. The "This book is made (of rabbits and lemonade)" and "The parts of Ruby/Chunky Bacon" songs gives you a good sample of what his overall production felt like (see below). He was also excellent at promoting his works, but was ambivalent regarding his own fame. He also sometimes displayed a darker side (like in the Poignant Guide where he jokingly predicted that he was going to burn out and shoot himself in the head). Watching him was at the same time entertaining and enlightening, and more, and I definitely wasn't the only person to deeply enjoy what he was doing... When he disappeared people went to no end to recover his works. Most of his deleted work has been restored from backups (git forks and RSS feeds helped with this). Some of his code projects have been taken over by others, and all are archived here: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/ http://viewsourcecode.org/why/ While active, he was admired. When he disappeared, he became a legend. It's a pity he left so many things unfinished. -- The Poignant Guid to Ruby: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/ http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/ -- The Redhanded blog, covering all things Ruby: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/redhanded/ http://viewsourcecode.org/why/redhanded/ Hackety.org, his next blog on artful programming: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/hackety.org/ http://viewsourcecode.org/why/hackety.org/ -- The SoundTrack of the Poignant Guide: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/soundtrack/ http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/soundtrack/ Recommended: - This book is made (of rabbits and lemonade): http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%2Fchapter-2-this-book-is-made.mp3 http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%... - The parts of Ruby / Chunky Bacon : http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%2Fchapter-3-chunky-bacon.mp3 http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%... . . I just found out that it was still possible to buy Chunky Bacon t-shirts: http://www.cafepress.co.uk/blixytees http://www.cafepress.co.uk/blixytees
mtogo 15y ago
He's a guy who wrote some programs and talked about programming and then deleted all his accounts. Some people worship him for reasons i find myself unable to fathom.

At the risk of being terse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff

RobertHubert 15y ago
http://www.vimeo.com/5047563 http://www.vimeo.com/5047563
- technoweenie 15y ago
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du_RTMmofWM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du_RTMmofWM

SkyMarshal 15y ago

Why The Lucky Stiff is a mercurial enigma wrapped in a riddle shrouded in mystery. He wrote these crazy awesome ebooks on Ruby, among other things, put it all out on the Internet, then when it got popular he tried to retract and delete it all and disappear. He only succeeded at the latter though, his books live on. But people still wonder where he went, and hope that one day he'll resurface. This post title implied he has, but alas, it's misleading.

philwelch 15y ago
That's not entirely true. why was happy to remain in the public eye long after he and his book gained notoriety. What you don't mention is his prolific open source work, including the html/xml parser hpricot. why's disappearance seemed to happen just as nokogiri, a technically superior parser, became prominent, though why's motives will never be known for sure. why's last tweets include: "caller asks, “should i use hpricot or nokogiri?” if you’re NOT me: use nokogiri. and if you’re me: well cut it out, stop being me." "if you program and want any longevity to your work, make a game. all else recycles, but people rewrite architectures to keep games alive."
- oemera 15y ago
  I don't know much about _why but as I read all the stories about his disappearing I can't help but think he had serious problems in his life. To take it personally and go away only because your code is getting old and slow while other learned from it and wrote something better is IMO wrong! You should also learn from libraries and go on write something new and challenge yourself again. Giving up because of a loses match is just not ok. I also find it pretty odd that no-one seems to know what he is doing now. What about all of his friends? Do they also don't where he is? But I think if someone puts so much energy in hidden himself he shouldn't be found anyway.
  - enneff 15y ago
    He was "unmasked" at one point. Last I heard - shortly after his disappearance - he was alive and employed. My take on his disappearance is that he just wanted to bow out of the limelight. Fair enough, IMO.
    - oemera 15y ago
      Thanks for this. I can understand that people want to get out of the light because not everybody can take that.
      - 16s 15y ago
        Some people have jobs where it's discouraged to stand-out or draw attention outside of work. Doing so is looked-down upon and may lead to reprimand or termination. I have no idea if this was the case for _why, I just want to point that out.
        oemera 15y ago
        Yeah can imagine there are jobs where it is required to stay "hidden". I think it is very interesting cause most times you can make a name in communities when good and at the same time popular people from the community are working for your company. On the other side there are plenty of people who did or still do a lot to be popular in the community. Last but not least I think the guy has earned some rest.
jackowayed 15y ago
As well as the books, he also wrote a few fairly-widely-used Ruby libraries, often with quirks. (eg. Camping, the web framework whose goal is to always have its codebase stay under 4kB)
masklinn 15y ago
> He wrote these crazy awesome ebooks on Ruby And interesting libraries and tools (Camping, Hpricot, Redcloth, Syck, Shoes, unHoly — a Ruby to Python compiler, TryRuby and Hackety Hack). He also looks like the old Jack Black (with hair and beard, Tenacious-D Era)

wisty 15y ago

why (with an underscore) was a cool pseudonymous Ruby programmer / writer, who completely disappeared. He's like the Bobby Fisher of programming, without the crazy. (OK, he sounds a little ... artistic, but that's not really crazy). Some people say he stopped writing because he was in danger of being "outed" by people trying to find his identity. Or maybe he got sick of Ruby, and wanted to do something else (without the burden of fame). Or he's still working under another identity and persona. The whole mystery thing is typical of him - he likes bringing a bit of wonder into the world.

nikcub 15y ago
I don't blame him for disappearing. The entire cult that appeared around him was completely against a lot of what he talked about.
- wyclif 15y ago
  I like to think of _why today living a quiet, reclusive life in Pennsylvania with his wife and children, peacefully working on his own projects and art.
mtogo 15y ago
> He's like the Bobby Fisher of programming W H A T!? How is _why in any way the Bobby Fisher of programming? Bobby Fischer was a famous, amazing chess player. _why is a person that writes code and some people (some Ruby developers, rather) look up to. They're not comparable in any way.
- jarin 15y ago
  Bobby Fischer was famous, among chess players. _why was famous, among rubyists. The only difference is they didn't make a movie about _why.
  - anthonyb 15y ago
    yet :)

pygy_ 15y ago

He's a top notch high and low-level programmer with excellent taste for API design (and a language geek). He's also a talented poet/writer, painter/cartoonist/web designer and composer/singer/musician. From ~2002 to 2009, he released a tremendous amount of material (dozens of code projects, thousands of blog posts), then disappeared abruptly, deleting almost everything he had ever published. His blog posts were humorous yet insightful. His libraries were excellent, some of his snippets were completely baffling. The libraries were always artfully and pedagogically documented. He wrote in 2005 an essay lamenting the high barier of entry to programming for children in the 2000's whereas Basic was available in every 8/16bit computers when he was a kid. From then on, he tried to improve the situation: first by writing his Poignant guide to Ruby, then by writing http://http://tryruby.org/ http://http://tryruby.org/, the first online REPL, wrapped in an interactive tutorial. At last, he started the Hackety Hack project: an development environment to teach programming to children. Extremely creative, he (used to?) consider programming to be an art in and of itself, but frequently mixed genres too. His programming book is illustrated with cartoons, fantastic stories and has a sound track that illustrates either the code, the stories, or the book writing process itself. The "This book is made (of rabbits and lemonade)" and "The parts of Ruby/Chunky Bacon" songs gives you a good sample of what his overall production felt like (see below). He was also excellent at promoting his works, but was ambivalent regarding his own fame. He also sometimes displayed a darker side (like in the Poignant Guide where he jokingly predicted that he was going to burn out and shoot himself in the head). Watching him was at the same time entertaining and enlightening, and more, and I definitely wasn't the only person to deeply enjoy what he was doing... When he disappeared people went to no end to recover his works. Most of his deleted work has been restored from backups (git forks and RSS feeds helped with this). Some of his code projects have been taken over by others, and all are archived here: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/ http://viewsourcecode.org/why/ While active, he was admired. When he disappeared, he became a legend. It's a pity he left so many things unfinished. -- The Poignant Guid to Ruby: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/ http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/ -- The Redhanded blog, covering all things Ruby: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/redhanded/ http://viewsourcecode.org/why/redhanded/ Hackety.org, his next blog on artful programming: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/hackety.org/ http://viewsourcecode.org/why/hackety.org/ -- The SoundTrack of the Poignant Guide: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/soundtrack/ http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/soundtrack/ Recommended: - This book is made (of rabbits and lemonade): http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%2Fchapter-2-this-book-is-made.mp3 http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%... - The parts of Ruby / Chunky Bacon : http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%2Fchapter-3-chunky-bacon.mp3 http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%... . . I just found out that it was still possible to buy Chunky Bacon t-shirts: http://www.cafepress.co.uk/blixytees http://www.cafepress.co.uk/blixytees

mtogo 15y ago

He's a guy who wrote some programs and talked about programming and then deleted all his accounts. Some people worship him for reasons i find myself unable to fathom.