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What an interesting story. Did anyone here ever meet him?

by swamp40 13y ago

Nicholas_C 13y ago
Makes me wonder how many other people there are like this living incredible lives fit for a movie. And here I am staring at excel.
- pravda 13y ago
  Maybe 1/10 of 1%? The rest of us are grown stiff with the ramrod of convention down our backs. We pass on; and some day we come, at the end of a very dull life, to reflect that our romance has been a pallid thing of a marriage or two, a satin rosette kept in a safe-deposit drawer, and a lifelong feud with a steam radiator.
  - barrkel 13y ago
    I thought that sentence was too good for an offhand comment, and sure enough, it's a quote from "The Green Door", a short story by someone called "O. Henry". Not suggesting you're stealing it, probably it is more famous to you, but I'd never heard it, nor of the story, nor of the author before.
    - pravda 13y ago
      I thought he was more well-known! His most famous short story was probably "The Gift of the Magi" but I quoted "The Green Door". http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/grol/ohenry/the4m15.htm http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/grol/ohenry/the4m15.htm
- cmicali 13y ago
  Many lives are incredible, sometimes small details, sometimes extreme events, but only a few make it a point to broadcast and paint that persona of themselves, real or not.
bakedjake 13y ago
I knew him from SEO land - we met in London in 2002. My favorite thing about Martin is that he would call (always on the phone, never by email) out of the blue with completely random requests. The last one I got from him, two weeks before he died, was to run a Hitwise report on some random website. Because it was Martin, you never asked why, but he was already ready to return the favor in any way he could. I remember when Shak told me that he died. It was a sad day indeed.
Matt_Cutts 13y ago
Martin and I crossed paths a few times, at first jousting and later as friends. He was truly a character. Someday I'll tell the story of how one of his unwelcome SEO explorations led to us setting a creative snare. But that story will keep for a few more years.
- Killah911 13y ago
  That's a story I'd like to hear. I have this inherent expectation that the "best" SEO's are super technical and figure out effectively doing SEO utililizing tech mere marketers can't reverse engineer easily, but given the rangenius episode, I wonder if it's really true.

What an interesting story. Did anyone here ever meet him?

by swamp40 13y ago

What an interesting story. Did anyone here ever meet him?

Makes me wonder how many other people there are like this living incredible lives fit for a movie. And here I am staring at excel.

pravda 13y ago
Maybe 1/10 of 1%? The rest of us are grown stiff with the ramrod of convention down our backs. We pass on; and some day we come, at the end of a very dull life, to reflect that our romance has been a pallid thing of a marriage or two, a satin rosette kept in a safe-deposit drawer, and a lifelong feud with a steam radiator.
- barrkel 13y ago
  I thought that sentence was too good for an offhand comment, and sure enough, it's a quote from "The Green Door", a short story by someone called "O. Henry". Not suggesting you're stealing it, probably it is more famous to you, but I'd never heard it, nor of the story, nor of the author before.
  - pravda 13y ago
    I thought he was more well-known! His most famous short story was probably "The Gift of the Magi" but I quoted "The Green Door". http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/grol/ohenry/the4m15.htm http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/grol/ohenry/the4m15.htm
cmicali 13y ago
Many lives are incredible, sometimes small details, sometimes extreme events, but only a few make it a point to broadcast and paint that persona of themselves, real or not.

bakedjake 13y ago

I knew him from SEO land - we met in London in 2002. My favorite thing about Martin is that he would call (always on the phone, never by email) out of the blue with completely random requests. The last one I got from him, two weeks before he died, was to run a Hitwise report on some random website. Because it was Martin, you never asked why, but he was already ready to return the favor in any way he could. I remember when Shak told me that he died. It was a sad day indeed.

Matt_Cutts 13y ago

Martin and I crossed paths a few times, at first jousting and later as friends. He was truly a character. Someday I'll tell the story of how one of his unwelcome SEO explorations led to us setting a creative snare. But that story will keep for a few more years.

Killah911 13y ago
That's a story I'd like to hear. I have this inherent expectation that the "best" SEO's are super technical and figure out effectively doing SEO utililizing tech mere marketers can't reverse engineer easily, but given the rangenius episode, I wonder if it's really true.