| Bob was crazy. In the best way. In the early 2000s, I first encountered Bob through the Java open source community. He had a knack of being able to go deep on a tough problem and emerge with a wonderfully elegant solution. This was a time when software was getting increasingly complex, and so did the knowledge required to understand it, yet Bob consistently bucked the trend and made things seems simple. He would tackle problems that scared others. He was crazy. Crazy Bob. At one point we had a rivalry working on two open source projects competing to solve the same problem. When we first met face to face, I was nervous there may be confrontation, yet he was friendly, full of energy, and excited that we shared the passion for the same problem. We brainstormed many ideas and both went away feeling great! His crazy energy amplified my own and passion for software. Shortly after, I joined Google because of Bob. Over the years since, he and I did our best to recruit each other for nearly every company either of us worked at - we just never got the timing right, yet I was always hopeful we'd figure it out eventually. Even in CxO roles, whenever Bob and I met we'd geek out on all sorts of tech problems, ranging from API design, to embedded C firmware tricks, to financial protocols, to graph network theory, to hardware development. He loved tech, and his eyes lit up whenever we found a shared passion. Bob was one of those few people who was incredibly smart, could see the problem in different ways, energize everyone around them, and make you want to be a better you. Crazy Bob. You'll be missed. |