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Poker pro, art collector, photographer, investor, AI researcher, chronic website creator, endless traveller, and omnipresent volunteer in nascent things. An independent and an invariant.

I briefly worked with him on an accountability partner service. We had funding but he never invoiced me. Every time I called him he was somewhere else on Earth. Senegal, Israel, Nepal, Egypt. He spent 13 straight months travelling in 2017-8.

He wasn't much of a writer - you won't find him on here - but he had started. What suddenly turned out to be his final projects were Poker Camp, Hold'LLM, and Bet Mitzvah, an unwritten book on probability and instrumental reason.

Here are some pieces about him from people who knew him much better than me. I expect there to be more.

 

His last commit was on the 22nd December. He died of malaria on 9th January 2025.

If you wish to honour Max's memory, his cofounder Ross suggests that you donate, not to the poetic choice AMF, but to the best choices under his model, Givewell or 1DaySooner.

 

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Max would often make an effort when in San Fransisco to go to an event where people of limited capacity in life would sell their art.

I wondered if what he found beautiful in their art was perhaps that those who are not born marvelous or even become marvelous would too have a form of expression of their souls.

That he believed in, and wanted to create, the kind of merciful universe where the outputs of their souls might be valued and cherished too, no matter how little value they had to offer it.

I think he felt limited in some ways, in the expression of his own soul, in the capacity of his own mind.

I think his belief in his own limitations far exceeded the reality, but none the less all he wanted to know was that others might still love and value him despite how little he felt he might have had to offer. And he tried to give that love back to others. He gave it to me very often.

There is a place for those who ask us to be better in life. Max's message to others was often instead that you were worthy of love, kindness, and expression of your soul, just how you are.

I thought I would have many more decades to learn to love others the way he did, to see the world through his eyes.

 

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard" Winnie  the Pooh/A. A. Milne [496 x 454] : r/QuotesPorn
 

I'm sure he would want us to keep making the mistake of finding, in a world where people can still die, those in our lives we want many more decades with.

 


We will be hosting a small event this summer, likely at VibeCamp or LessOnline. Right now Jackson Karel and I are compiling all the data we have on him. If you have any photos, videos, or conversations or written memories you'd like to share, please message either of us with them.

He really did love carrots. I seem to remember him saving me from (what was possibly) hypoglycemia in the middle of a hike by giving me a carrot.

May his memory be a blessing.

Got to connect with Max through impact investing circles, he also took the time out to have a call to give feedback on another impact project, sharing his experience candidly. I remember thinking - that was really nice of him to take time out to really help a random person on the internet. Shame he was taken too early. Rest in peace Max.

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