I don't take the same thing from the article. Yes, it's lighter than Terence's standard writing, and a bit more closed than his usual style, but I feel that he just wanted to underline something he liked personally.

In once sentence, the blog post reads:

    Hey, look, this guy did something nice, and was honest about it.

I wouldn't even call it "nice." Stepping down only 9 years after the introduction of Mastodon seems a bit premature. I wouldn't call it selfish, though some people might. Plus, Rochko did get paid 1 million euros in the transition.

For all I know, Rails and WordPress already have succession plans, or if not, I'm sure they will eventually, as the founders get older. They're still relatively young.