In Memoriam: Josh Baer
"You're off to great places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting. So get on your way." - Dr. Seuss, read at Josh's memorial
I wanted to convey my thoughts and deep sadness about the loss of our friend and board member, Josh Baer.
Josh sat on the Librari board, but the way I will always remember him is “leading from the front” and teaching people. Thanks to Josh, we taught the Longhorn Startup class together at the University of Texas, and that experience changed how I think about building, teaching, and what it means to leave something behind.
Standing up in front of a room of students with Josh was a master class in itself. He wasn’t there to impress anyone. He was there to give something away. He believed, deeply, that the most valuable thing you can do is teach someone something they would not have learned otherwise. Watching him do it, week after week, I came to understand that teaching was never a side project for Josh. It was the whole point - to his whole life.
Josh shared something with me not long ago about why he spent so much of his life building, teaching, and sharing ideas. I want to share it, because it is Josh at his most honest:
“For a long time, I thought of projects as projects. But I’ve come to see that many of them are really my version of writing a book. They’re a way of taking things I’ve learned and passing them on to other people... Creating things that outlast me. Helping people learn something they wouldn’t have learned otherwise.”
Josh viewed his teaching as a way of continuing the conversation after we're gone.
What Josh taught me
If I distill what Josh taught me, here’s what I think about:
Your projects are really your way of writing a book. They are how you pass on what you’ve learned.
Legacy isn’t recognition or achievement. It’s the ideas, tools, and lessons you leave behind that help other people.
Teach people something they might not have learned otherwise. That is the most useful thing you can do with what you know.
As you get older, think less about outcomes and more about people. Less about money and more about relationships. Less about what you built and more about how others felt while building it with you.
Your impact on the people around you may matter more than any achievement. The work matters. But in the end, people remember something much simpler. They remember how you made them feel.
That last one is the truest thing I know about Josh. I remember exactly how he made me feel. Believed in. Pushed. Trusted to do more than I thought I could. Anyone who spent time with him knows that feeling, and it is the most lasting thing he gave us.
Carry it forward
Josh built one more thing that captures everything he believed about teaching. It’s called delegation.school, a free online course that teaches people how to really use AI. It is generous, practical, and unmistakably Josh: take what you’ve learned, and give it away so others can go further.
If you want to honor him, take the class. Learn something new. Then teach it to someone else. That was always the assignment.
We love you, Josh. Your mountain is waiting, and so is ours.