Part of the reason is that he keeps his projects limited in scope and simple. If his github repo is any indication, he only works on one or two things at a given time and is able to complete them (due to limited scope). Because he doesn't take himself seriously, no one is harping on him to say that "we need this or that, because we need it for ENTERPRISE!" So he's able to keep it simple, get it done, move on, and learn something in the process.
As for how he supports himself and is able to make the time to code is a mystery to me.
Looking at his commit patterns, it's throughout the days of the week, even though the bulk of it is at night. But it's reassuring to see that even _why stops for dinner, and the reason why the rest of us aren't as productive is because we're not as consistently hacking away as he is.
As for knowing more about him, I'd say you'd probably learn more about him reading his code than digging up things like his real name.
Because he doesn't take himself seriously, no one is harping...
I watched his talk at ART && CODE (http://www.vimeo.com/5047563) and it was full of some awesome jokes at his expense. I think self-deprecation is the best of character traits.
I am curious what he does for money, though. My ultimate goal is to have enough in the bank to solely hack on open source stuff for the remainder of my career.
I have no idea what why does for a living but apparently not having a day job or at least having a flexible enough schedule that allows one to write code for fun helps. The punch card view is one of the best visualizations I've seen yet.
As for how he supports himself and is able to make the time to code is a mystery to me.
http://github.com/why/potion/graphs/punch_card
Looking at his commit patterns, it's throughout the days of the week, even though the bulk of it is at night. But it's reassuring to see that even _why stops for dinner, and the reason why the rest of us aren't as productive is because we're not as consistently hacking away as he is.
As for knowing more about him, I'd say you'd probably learn more about him reading his code than digging up things like his real name.