For the record: He was Norwegian, not Swedish. And I think this story fueled quite a bit of the general public's recent interest in bitcoin.
Definitely. Get rich quick always draws the masses in.
Just like the Poker boom was set in motion by an average Joe winning a huge tournament, the Norwegian story did wonders for Bitcoin. We need more of those.
We need a lot less of these stories. Anything with a return in the thousands of percent per year sounds like a scam. If it's too good to true... and all that. People need to use bitcoin because it's useful and fills a niche in the financial system. I would rather not have them enter the system because they think they'll be millionaires in a couple of years time for pocket change today.