I'd say Fabrice Bellard is more a "mythical mainstay". It's hard to go a week without someone posting about him and his projects if you keep an eye out for it. Right now 3 of the stories on the front page (including this one) have mentions of him which is definitely more than average but even when this dips down you'll still see the constant trickle.

A large part of it is obviously that his projects really are good and plentiful but I think another sizeable part is due to something the article points out: he doesn't do any self promotion. He doesn't write blogposts, he doesn't do interviews, he doesn't have any hot takes on Twitter, he doesn't comment on HN... he just writes great code. It's both admirable/enviable as well as a bit more mysterious or "out of reach" than a lot of the other "legendary programmers" e.g. Justine who write equally amazing things but are a bit more tangible here. Not that one way is right or wrong it just helps his name get pretty consistently randomly brought up by HNers.

>he doesn't do any self promotion. He doesn't write blogposts, he doesn't do interviews, he doesn't have any hot takes on Twitter, he doesn't comment on HN

IMO, that is what makes him so unique and a bazillion times better than other so-called "greats". And he gives away all of his work for free. He lives by actual principles, morals and ethics which most of us only mouth.

What i really really would like to see is an in-depth interview with him on his Worldviews, Problem solving approach, How to focus on studying something, Productivity tips etc. I can't help but feel that he has a certain approach to life, studies and work (not just hard work) which if we could learn from would make us "better".

If possible, can you please link the comments? I really like to read anything on Bellard

You can use the search feature of HN and ask to order by date.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

He's quite a good programmer but this kind of fandom/idolatry isn't healthy, emotionally or for your own skill development.

who is justine?

Justine Tunney - creator of red bean, here’s the original HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26271117

Except I feel Bellard should be as famous an John Carmack in the Anglosphere, or whatever you want to call it, and I'm not sure he is probably because he values privacy and quiet work time

> Popular comment about Bellard yesterday? Bet you'll see a write-up of Bellard submitted today.

I don't know what triggered this particular (re)submission, but I found about his quickjs hours ago by reading a thread about javascript in youtube-dl that is a serious candidate ...

I've noticed that pattern as well. You put it into words nicely.

The other being D.J.Bernstein. (I admire, or dare I say envy, the work of both of them btw.)

Many people are very critical of his coding style and 'paranoia', but still, he wrote some of the most bug free/solid programs and has been right with his predictions far more often than not.

There’s a comment I read on the other article where someone said > that dude is a wizard wielding c like a brain surgeon wields a scalpel.

I’ve decided that’s the analogy I’ll be using for someone who’s really good at something