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I always assumed it was his real name, but I suppose that was just an unexamined assumption. Gwern Branwen is a prolific [1] netizen who is also completely ano

I always assumed it was his real name, but I suppose that was just an unexamined assumption. Gwern Branwen is a prolific [1] netizen who is also completely anonymous. I don't know how people like him [2] do it. Surely the people who know him IRL are aware of what he's working on day-to-day and someone would be able to connect the dots. Unless he lives alone or his housemates are completely offline - and he doesn't talk to anyone IRL about what he does at home. [1] Sometimes on Twitter or Hacker News I legitimately just scan my eyes around the screen expecting a comment from or link to Gwern to be already in my field of vision. [2] I have seen since-scrubbed evidence Gwern is a "him" though he now seems to hide that too

woojoo666 4y ago
iirc lots of Japanese manga artists are also anonymous. Like the author of the recently popular Jujutsu Kaisen series [1], who appeared on TV wearing a mask of one of his characters [2] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gege_Akutami https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gege_Akutami [2]: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-01-27/gege-akutami-to-cosplay-as-mechamaru-in-first-tv-appearance/.168805 https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-01-27/gege-ak...
- philliphaydon 4y ago
  Apparently getting into manga is really difficult in Japan. Most start out doing hentai. To make money until they get a break and their manga becomes popular. (I don’t know how true this is, something I read many years ago cos I’ve been watching anime for 25 years)
defrost 4y ago
Like Greg I'm also a circa 60 year old W.Australian STEM arena coder/weddings/parties/anything person. It's a bit of a state wide trait to be general while leaving a semi challenging last mile problem. Having a capital city described by early US personnal in orbit as "the most remote city in the world" leads to a mild village syndrome when outsiders come asking for <insert specific name> .. who wants to know & how come you don't know already? As for gender, roughly a third of the math | physics | comp sci staff were female in the early 1980s (Cheryl E Praeger and others) and a number spent the early Usenet days with nome de guerra to sidestep the complications.
ghaff 4y ago
>I always assumed it was his real name, but I suppose that was just an unexamined assumption. Occam's Razor suggests it probably is his real name. There are a few other biographic details online which I suppose someone could verify if they cared enough, especially if they were local and he actually lives in Perth. He's certainly been using that name since the early 80s. It's mostly that he just completely avoids fandom and publishing circles and he's of an age where photos of you mostly didn't randomly show up on the Internet unless you deliberately put them there. And he is apparently determined to keep it that way. This is actually a pretty good example of a person who could probably be found pretty easily if someone, and certainly the government, really wanted to but they keep out of the public eye except for their books and the occasional interview.

woojoo666 4y ago

iirc lots of Japanese manga artists are also anonymous. Like the author of the recently popular Jujutsu Kaisen series [1], who appeared on TV wearing a mask of one of his characters [2] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gege_Akutami https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gege_Akutami [2]: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-01-27/gege-akutami-to-cosplay-as-mechamaru-in-first-tv-appearance/.168805 https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-01-27/gege-ak...

philliphaydon 4y ago
Apparently getting into manga is really difficult in Japan. Most start out doing hentai. To make money until they get a break and their manga becomes popular. (I don’t know how true this is, something I read many years ago cos I’ve been watching anime for 25 years)

defrost 4y ago

Like Greg I'm also a circa 60 year old W.Australian STEM arena coder/weddings/parties/anything person. It's a bit of a state wide trait to be general while leaving a semi challenging last mile problem. Having a capital city described by early US personnal in orbit as "the most remote city in the world" leads to a mild village syndrome when outsiders come asking for <insert specific name> .. who wants to know & how come you don't know already? As for gender, roughly a third of the math | physics | comp sci staff were female in the early 1980s (Cheryl E Praeger and others) and a number spent the early Usenet days with nome de guerra to sidestep the complications.

ghaff 4y ago

>I always assumed it was his real name, but I suppose that was just an unexamined assumption. Occam's Razor suggests it probably is his real name. There are a few other biographic details online which I suppose someone could verify if they cared enough, especially if they were local and he actually lives in Perth. He's certainly been using that name since the early 80s. It's mostly that he just completely avoids fandom and publishing circles and he's of an age where photos of you mostly didn't randomly show up on the Internet unless you deliberately put them there. And he is apparently determined to keep it that way. This is actually a pretty good example of a person who could probably be found pretty easily if someone, and certainly the government, really wanted to but they keep out of the public eye except for their books and the occasional interview.