I think the real take-away from this is to just stay legit. Don't try to do anything shady because it will most likely come back to bite you in the ass. The guy is actually pretty dumb for not realizing they could figure out who he was while using a handle that contains his real name.
I would hope that apart from staying legit, another take away from this be to know the market that you are in, know of some of the key people at those companies, or perhaps being able to find said information?
From the article it seems that the bruben25 SEO guy didn't do any research as to who Matt was, where as Matt quickly found out quite a bit of (public) information on who the SEO guy was.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Matt Cutts is an expert in search. B D Ruben is an expert in being found. Hence, Matt Cutts was able to find B D Ruben. No reason to expect it to work the other way around.
(For the avoidance of doubt: No, I am not serious. Yes, Ruben appears to be a dweeb. Yes, Matt Cutts is obviously very much smarter than he is.)
Indeed, everyone should learn who the key people are in their industry. It's almost unfathomable that bruben25 didn't know who Matt Cutts is, though. B Ruben seems to be on another plane of obliviousness. Everyone knows who Matt Cutts is. I think this speaks more to the fact that the guy really didn't do any legitimate SEO. People who are legitimate in SEO generally keep up with the trade publications, talk to people, and make connections.
If you're asking if I read the entire article, yes I did. I don't know if the guy (bruben25) is actually crazy, but he certainly doesn't come off as the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Edit: I see what you're pointing to now (bruben25's wall of text in the Google Webmaster Central thread). I didn't actually read that but I'm checking it out now.
I looked at that original thread, and oh boy is that a lot of text. Obviously someone really wanted to defend their position and thought a lot of text would help make their point.
