Sometime I wonder how Tom Lane manages to work so hard! Many years back, I asked the same question to my Professor at IIT and he replied, "I enjoy what I do, so I never feel like working hard.". May be the same is true about Tom. He is so passionate about this work that he probably never gets tired, well at least that's my perception :-)
I have seen him jumping from one thread to another, one list to another quite effortlessly. And I am sure that requires tons of knowledge about the project you are working on, PostgreSQL in this case. He rarely gets things wrong in the first attempt and that requires extraordinary quality of work. Not only does he work on his action items, more so he helps bunch of other developers to see that their work is completed and accepted in a quality form. That really requires great patience. And we are fan of his writing skills. I wonder if I should start collecting his quotes - that will make a great collection ;-)
So you may ask why I am praising the guy in public domain ? Because I think he deserves that. Its my way to say "Thank you" for all the efforts he puts into to keep the PostgreSQL community thriving and make Postgres such a wonderful product. Its hard to imagine PostgreSQL community without Tom. Long live Tom!