According to Wikipedia, “why the lucky stiff was the persona of an anonymous, but prolific writer, cartoonist, musician, artist, and computer programmer”. He looks a bit like Jack Black.

His book, Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby, is a classic, though it can be hard to find since Why disappeared. If you want to learn the Ruby programming language I highly recommend Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby. I am including a link here so that others who search for it may find it more easily.