Is it just me, or does the Ruby community go in for cults of personality considerably more than others?
For me, the _why persona was a little beacon that radiated the message: "you can make cool stuff and have fun regardless of your circumstances". That's a nice contrast to the dreariness of so much of the IT world on the one hand and the (often justified, but still depressing) rants about the evils of the IT world on the other hand.
I'm reading this as a complete outsider, and trying to find the source of this level of adulation is difficult at best. I assume it's a community-centric thing, where someone outside of the community wouldn't "get it". It all just seems so bizarrely self-congratulatory.
And what do you mean "regardless of your circumstances"? What do we know about his circumstances that would convey that message?
I feel very inspired by the works of Salman Rushdie. He hasn't published anything for a few days - should we eulogize him on HN too?
I'm not over simplifying the man or his life - I'm suggesting that this is absurd way to react!
1) Generally being "done" with that particular identity or community, and having lost interest to the point where the effort required to maintain it was disproportionate with the enjoyment or self-aggrandisement derived from it. If this is the case, then eulogising and lamenting and celebrating is misplaced: Perhaps introspection would be a better reaction - asking, "what is wrong with the community such that a high-profile member no longer wants to be a part of it?"; or
2) Some kind of personal or mental problems that have precipitated this, in which case, the value of maintaining an online profile is probably just less than the perceived value from removing all traces of an online presence.
Or alternatively, any number of explanations to do with hackers or vandalism could be in play too.
I just think the response has been totally disproportional to the event, at least until more information is available.
This communities in this case would be the entire online and open source communities.
Darn. What a shame. Guess I'm not gonna learn Ruby now.
On a lighter side, for some reason Ruby reminds me of "The Mighty Boosh" .. its supposed to be great, amazing, and all the younger kids are into it, but when I actually sit down and try to comprehend "why?" (no pun intended), its just a big fat meh.
No, people are saying that a remarkably unique artist/hacker is a creative visionary, which he is.
"I'm reading this as a complete outsider"
Outsider to what? Creative work?
That's very subjective.
And I was claiming to be an outsider to the Ruby community, which this entire thread appears to be centred around.
No, taste is subjective. That _why is unique, a hacker, an artist and creative is not.
"And I was claiming to be an outsider to the Ruby community"
Yeah, hence why I'm highlighting the inanity of your insistence on viewing his work through the prism of "Ruby" rather than for what it is: creative code in multiple languages including one he invented, artwork, music, books and commentary on making programming more accessible and fun.
He wrote a graphical toolkit, a sound synthesiser, an HTML parser, html template language, a language (grammar, parser, vm and jit, gc, ...), and many other software projects on his own.
All of these are a joy to use. They are not only well though out technically (and it's an euphemisim), their APIs are excellent and often fun to use, and they are wonderfully documented.
Do you know of many people who are proficient in so many domains?
He also has a very personal graphic and literary style. What makes him unique is that he treated coding as an artistic medium too, and that he was able to mix his various skills to create integrated works.
Can you name somebody else that would qualify for these traits?
If not he's indeed a remarkably unique artist/hacker, and a creative visionary since no one had done that before.
OK, I could be overstating it a little, but I reckon there are people in the Ruby community who could tell me what DHH had for breakfast.
Perl seems to focus its love and attention on Larry Wall himself, for the most part.