Last time I saw Max, he was showing me this app he built that pulls in products from SSENSE and users have to guess how much things cost. So random and funny and fun to play with! And when I asked if he was going to monetize it he was like "eh, maybe?" He'd just built it for the sake of creating cool things and for the community. Such a good spirit.
This is a touching obituary, fit for Max, and I am so grateful to you for writing it.
I am absolutely heartbroken to hear this news.
I met Max for the first time in October.
I came across his name online and was shocked at how much we had in common. We were both EA/rationalists, lived in Israel, visited Chabad houses all over the world (despite being secular), travelled extensively (and specifically in Africa), were optimizers, loved biking, hiking and tennis, cared deeply about art and shared many other similarities.
We spent an afternoon walking in NYC, both of us recently moved there, talking about how we ended up at the present moment, becoming the people we were then, and our hopes for the future. Critically, Max expressed a desire to stop adventuring and going on crazy trips, and to settle down and get married. This makes the news of him suffering so tragically from malaria while travelling in Senegal all the more tragic, and especially poignant for me, as someone who has also traveled to Senegal (and lots of other places with endemic malaria).
I feel so sad now.
I have no connection with anyone in Max's family, but if there is any sort of shiva or gathering in NYC (or anyone would like to join me), I would like to commemorate Max in some way.
Don’t know how I stumbled upon this post, substack is crazy that way. I loved reading about this guy I never knew, and will never know. What a wonderfully written tribute. I wish I had better words… but I’ll just say thank you (and the substack algorithm, I guess) for letting me know about how great Max was. I’m going to go eat everything in the fridge now
Thanks so much for writing this. It is incredible to hear about the fullness of Max's life. Hope its ok to share my memories of Max here.
Max is my younger brother's friend who became my good friend only in the last few years.
Max and I became friends because we both loved to travel in Africa and the parts of Africa that were particularly hard to get to. Over the years I would get a text about how to do a border crossing in west africa or the frequency of river transport down the Congo. Those messages led to planning trips in Africa that we both wanted to take. Each text was transportative.
More than this and true to Max, we both loved traveling for the community we found. We lamented the loss of web 1.0 forums like Lonely Planet Thorn Tree where the intrepid could find eachother, share tips, and even meet up. Oh and Max would definitely meet up with you, even if there was half an invitation.
This led to 40k.earth! A passion project, a side hustle, sure, but also housing all the hopes for the trips we might take and the people we might meet. We worked on it off and on for a little more than a year. True to form, Max came to Portugal to visit me and to work on it in person. We worked, we hiked, we played board games with my tiny kids, we went to the Chabad, we talked about why hotel eggs are so disappointing. Talking with Max is wide ranging as it is effortless.
He had been nearly everywhere and yet he still had 44 (FOURTY FOUR!) places he was dreaming to go. We built this as a fun way for people to share where they had been and where they wanted to go- the simplest feature to build as the foundation for our sprawling ambitions.
The best thing about sharing this with someone and seeing the map that they made was talking to them about places they had been. Why did you love Norway so much? Oh where in South America was your favorite? It brought us back in touch with friends we had met but had not seen in some time. (Probably more so me than Max, as I think he somehow kept in touch with everyone)
I am going to miss Max very much. I will miss him greatly when I look at his map and want to hear the stories of the places he has been. I will miss him more when I look at the places we wanted to go and hear him tell me about some tip he had picked up on the way.
Max was more than the places he has been, but I love remembering him in this way.
Thanks for writing this. I collaborated with Max on poker.camp in SF -- but of course there are sides of Max I never got to see. He just had so many sides.
I wrote my own tribute to Max, focused on our last 6-7 months together and what we were working on together: https://blog.rossry.net/chisness/
Thanks for writing this - sounds like a really interesting character and I'm sad I didn't get to know him better. I'm a distant cousin of Max from the UK, heard the incredibly sad news last week. I hadn't seen Max since he was a teenager, but would occasionally get updates through Peter talking to my dad. In an incredible coincidence, I actually figured out that I'm wearing an Old Jewish Men sweatshirt today (with bagels on it), which my wife bought for me in December and had shipped to London.
Last time I saw Max, he was showing me this app he built that pulls in products from SSENSE and users have to guess how much things cost. So random and funny and fun to play with! And when I asked if he was going to monetize it he was like "eh, maybe?" He'd just built it for the sake of creating cool things and for the community. Such a good spirit.
This is a touching obituary, fit for Max, and I am so grateful to you for writing it.
I am absolutely heartbroken to hear this news.
I met Max for the first time in October.
I came across his name online and was shocked at how much we had in common. We were both EA/rationalists, lived in Israel, visited Chabad houses all over the world (despite being secular), travelled extensively (and specifically in Africa), were optimizers, loved biking, hiking and tennis, cared deeply about art and shared many other similarities.
We spent an afternoon walking in NYC, both of us recently moved there, talking about how we ended up at the present moment, becoming the people we were then, and our hopes for the future. Critically, Max expressed a desire to stop adventuring and going on crazy trips, and to settle down and get married. This makes the news of him suffering so tragically from malaria while travelling in Senegal all the more tragic, and especially poignant for me, as someone who has also traveled to Senegal (and lots of other places with endemic malaria).
I feel so sad now.
I have no connection with anyone in Max's family, but if there is any sort of shiva or gathering in NYC (or anyone would like to join me), I would like to commemorate Max in some way.
Don’t know how I stumbled upon this post, substack is crazy that way. I loved reading about this guy I never knew, and will never know. What a wonderfully written tribute. I wish I had better words… but I’ll just say thank you (and the substack algorithm, I guess) for letting me know about how great Max was. I’m going to go eat everything in the fridge now
May his memory be a blessing
Thanks so much for writing this. It is incredible to hear about the fullness of Max's life. Hope its ok to share my memories of Max here.
Max is my younger brother's friend who became my good friend only in the last few years.
Max and I became friends because we both loved to travel in Africa and the parts of Africa that were particularly hard to get to. Over the years I would get a text about how to do a border crossing in west africa or the frequency of river transport down the Congo. Those messages led to planning trips in Africa that we both wanted to take. Each text was transportative.
More than this and true to Max, we both loved traveling for the community we found. We lamented the loss of web 1.0 forums like Lonely Planet Thorn Tree where the intrepid could find eachother, share tips, and even meet up. Oh and Max would definitely meet up with you, even if there was half an invitation.
This led to 40k.earth! A passion project, a side hustle, sure, but also housing all the hopes for the trips we might take and the people we might meet. We worked on it off and on for a little more than a year. True to form, Max came to Portugal to visit me and to work on it in person. We worked, we hiked, we played board games with my tiny kids, we went to the Chabad, we talked about why hotel eggs are so disappointing. Talking with Max is wide ranging as it is effortless.
This is Max's map https://40k.earth/chisness
He had been nearly everywhere and yet he still had 44 (FOURTY FOUR!) places he was dreaming to go. We built this as a fun way for people to share where they had been and where they wanted to go- the simplest feature to build as the foundation for our sprawling ambitions.
The best thing about sharing this with someone and seeing the map that they made was talking to them about places they had been. Why did you love Norway so much? Oh where in South America was your favorite? It brought us back in touch with friends we had met but had not seen in some time. (Probably more so me than Max, as I think he somehow kept in touch with everyone)
I am going to miss Max very much. I will miss him greatly when I look at his map and want to hear the stories of the places he has been. I will miss him more when I look at the places we wanted to go and hear him tell me about some tip he had picked up on the way.
Max was more than the places he has been, but I love remembering him in this way.
Thanks for writing this. I collaborated with Max on poker.camp in SF -- but of course there are sides of Max I never got to see. He just had so many sides.
I wrote my own tribute to Max, focused on our last 6-7 months together and what we were working on together: https://blog.rossry.net/chisness/
Great life story. Makes me feel like I haven't 'lived' minus the carrot addiction.
May his Memory be a blessing.
Beautifully written. We miss Max.
Very nice obituary. Sending my condolences.
BDE. Sorry for your loss.
Thanks for writing this - sounds like a really interesting character and I'm sad I didn't get to know him better. I'm a distant cousin of Max from the UK, heard the incredibly sad news last week. I hadn't seen Max since he was a teenager, but would occasionally get updates through Peter talking to my dad. In an incredible coincidence, I actually figured out that I'm wearing an Old Jewish Men sweatshirt today (with bagels on it), which my wife bought for me in December and had shipped to London.
Thank you for putting Max's brilliant, beautiful, uniquely individual life into words. I will miss him so much everyday.
He was an amazing person. I'll miss him dearly.
What a lovely tribute. Max sounded like an incredible man, someone I’d like to know.
MAX FOREVER!