Well there is the difference, he doesn't want that 401k and yes you too could have said fuck you, but you didn't. I'm not familiar with the student loan system, but if what he did is possible without going to prison and he feels that's what works for him, it's an option, just not you're option.
Yeah - my problem is that the author presents this situation as a choice between "life and death," where "life" is "doing what I desire but not making enough money to pay my obligations," and "death" is "anything else." It's possible to do without going to prison but not without completely tanking your credit. And that makes me wonder what benefits the author had available to him that he didn't mention. Like for instance, for the 7 years after he defaulted on his loans, how did he find a living space? A lot of apartments require credit checks and a mortgage absolutely does, which means he didn't buy a house, and/or was able to depend on someone else's credit in order to find a living space. (Like a spouse's, for instance.) A lot of jobs require a credit check...as a freelance writer, of course, maybe he got around that. There's also the potential for wage garnishment - but again, as a freelancer, he may have been able to escape that. However, if he ever took a regular job, he wouldn't be able to. There's also the harassment factor. He subjected not only himself but his family to collection calls from creditors for the next...40 years. They're still on-going, I believe.