Max Chiswick (1985–2025)
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.
https://redeniusfuneralhomes.com/obituary/max-chiswick/
https://oldjewishmen.substack.com/p/bhif-old-jewish-men-loses-a-friend
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.
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.