I have conflicting emotions about this. One part of me is awed by his ability to, hair on fire, cut everything to nothing and hammer out some debt. The other part of me wishes that he would have sold the house, gotten the cheapest apartment possible, and invested the $425,000 that he tied up in that house. The guy was saving 85% of his $100K income to pay off $255K in three years, so realistically he could be FIRE by now if living expenses are only $15K/year and the house sells for $450K.
The other point to discuss here is the wall-o-shame responses that are mentioned in the article: "Upstanding citizen works his life away, lives in miserable squalor and forgoes human relationships for years. How is this an inspirational story?" Well, anonymous person on the Internet, it is inspiring to see a dedicated person shrug off the social expectation that he spend his way to happiness, put away 8%, and work for the next forty years. It is inspiring to see that it is possible to pay off a mountainous pile of debt in a short time via self control and HARD. FUCKING. WORK.