While the technical accomplishments and understanding are commendable, I think that the main takeaway for me is the excellent approach to learning. Keeping it simple and taking an open-minded approach to learning (as exemplified by his attitude toward systemd) is an approach that more people could stand to take. So often we complicate things in our heads to the point where they seem unknowable and so we assume that they are too difficult and we don't try. I have seen this in myself at times and I see it others as well.
I'll be sharing this post at work so that the people who I work with who don't really understand Linux so well can appreciate the approach that was taken and hopefully also glean something from the excellent write-up itself.