Not just because he was a key investor in startups and helped found many dozens of them (summary here). I always knew he was a cool dude because of his original PageRank paper with Sergey Brin and Larry Page (see paper). PageRank was the technology at the heart of Google.
But the outpouring of grief on the web is totally unlike anything I had expected to see. He appears to have touched many, many people. He had the knack of quickly getting to the crux of a problem and help his listener understand it. A few minutes of conversation with him has often changed people's lives. Google cofounder Sergey Brin puts it well:
his legacy and personality live on in the students, projects, and companies he has touched. Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it.
(Sergey Brin's full blog post is here).
2 comments:
Yes - thanks for writing and it is very tragic - he was a good guy. Everyone liked him -- he did some very foundational things in CS ( look up "randomized algorithms" and "intractability" ) - but he
did it the right way. His course-mates ( he was class of 1983 ) have posted many reminiscences - he was a fun guy, always helpful, always friendly - it is truly sad..
w/ rgds ( and stop by if you come this way again -- the left coast misses you.. :-) )
oops - SVD be me - for some reason, it didn't print my name and you'd probably be in bafflement as to who it was.. :)
w/ rgds, vikas..
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