Grooveshark co-founder, 28, found dead in home
gainesville.com
gainesville.com
From the day I took the job, I watched Josh tirelessly run through his pitch time and time again, always with the same attention to detail, and the same level of genuine interest in getting to know each candidate. He was frenetic and unflinching in his desire to succeed.
Josh cared about his team, and he never let the negative chains of events that plagued Grooveshark over the years get the best of him. He kept a sticker on his desk that said, "this too shall pass", and even in the worst times, he'd give a wry smile and crack a joke to let everyone know that things weren't as bad as they seemed.
I spoke with Josh at a bar downtown about two weeks ago, and he was again in good spirits. He had a new idea for a startup that he was preparing to begin work on in earnest, and he seemed genuinely excited about his path forward. In talking about Grooveshark, it was evident that closing that chapter in his life was a weight off his shoulders.
Needless to say, I'm extremely sad to see Josh go. He was a dear friend and a hell of a human being. He opened countless doors for hundreds of people and helped create a true startup community here in Gainesville. Josh, you will be sorely missed.
Grooveshark was my absolute favourite website for close to a half a decade, I can't even count the hours I spent listening to it.
I am going to miss it sorely.
Such a sad day.
My few memories of him consist mostly of Josh explaining technology to me at the dinner table in slow, careful words so that a middle school kid could understand. I remember him laughing with me about the crazy/terrible things I had done to overclock my Android Dev Phone 1 at a time when no one else I knew thought that was interesting. I remember feeling really cool when he hooked me up with free Grooveshark premium to be nice.
It's strange. I haven't seen or heard from him in nearly a decade. He stopped dating my step-sister years ago. He likely wouldn't have remembered my name if you asked him.
Still, I feel like a friend is gone.
Since then, I've always had the feeling that you don't really have to try hard to have a meaningful impact on other people's lives. Just be nice in general and you'll have more impact than you can imagine.
Talk about a life gone too soon. I'm pouring one out for Josh tonight.
When I started my company, Josh was the first person to take a chance with our nacent technology.
When Grooveshark recently shut down, I sent him a note telling him how sad I was to hear about their great service being shut down, and referneced roosevelt's The Man in the Arena poem.
Josh wrote back:
> Thanks man… I appreciate the kind words and also absolutely love that quote. > We’re not done yet… Grooveshark’s chapter is over but I’m at least happy to be free of the dark cloud and excited to move onto new things. > Onward and upward… > This is my personal email address by the way, so please do keep in touch. > Best of luck with everything at Metrical… hang in there. > Josh
Always positive, supportive and kind, he was a mentor to me despite our considerable age difference. I'll miss him.
My heart goes out to his girlfriend and all of those with tears running down their cheeks since last night. Rest in peace, and thanks for all you have done.
Let's have an open door policy when a fellow entrepreneur reaches out to us to ask for help, advise or just wants to talk to someone who can relate to what they are going through in starting, running and growing a new business or just life in general.
There are those in our community who wake up and live breathe and are motivated by a mission to make an impact in the world. Its not all about the money. The true leaders of our generation are motivated by being of service to others.
It costs no money to make a friend in your own community and let's not try to be so cut throat. We are the ones fighting giants who are failing every day to adjust their strategies to adopt to a new generation who could care less of "how it's always been done."
RIP Josh. You will be missed by everyone.
I'm reminded of one of my dogs dying of hemangiosarcoma - a cancer of the blood vessel linings that thankfully only happens to dogs, not humans. In many cases, the way we find out a dog has hemangiosarcoma is that the dog suddenly just drops dead. (In Rubu's case, it was three weeks from the first symptoms.) There are similarly fast and deadly cancers in humans.
Josh created a service that was a pleasure to use. I discovered so much music using it.
When Grooveshark closed, I moved to Spotify, which, IMO, has a very long way to go before it becomes what Grooveshark was in terms of music diversity.
RIP man, your work touched lives.
This seems like a long time, is it normal?
But maybe tests are done in stages? Like, if nothing obvious shows up on first tests then some other ones are done?
It'd be interesting to see what the bottlenecks are and how to improve them.
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/04/05/commission-looks-misc...
Harris county, Texas just recently got a new one because of similarly disturbing corruption and incompetence.
in the case where, say, a serial rapist/killer hasn't been caught, there can be a backlog of untested DNA from other crime scenes that may identify the suspect, but haven't been tested because of the backlog.
1) Negative Screening (6hrs) - Figuring out what compounds show up initially. Special dyes were use to identify potential compounds. Not conclusive but narrows down the next steps
2) Extraction (10 - 18 hrs) - Separate the target compounds from the rest of compounds/proteins in the sample fluid.
3) Postive Certification via GCMS (2hrs - 16hrs) - The extracted compounds were ionized (broken into predictable pieces) then sent through the GCMS to where a signal signature determined.
Each step included equipment expensive materials and equipment. The last step is was the most expensive and error prone. The GCMS machines need maintenance and calibration. They cost anywhere from $30,000 to $70,000.
Sometimes we lost samples because the machine would lose it's calibration and wouldn't be enough to start another set. We took in samples on a national scale, but I can see how a smaller non-commercial lab accumulate a large backlog.
This was like 10 years ago but I don't see the technology changing that much.
"No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thy friend's Or of thine own were: Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind..."
I'll be saying a prayer and pouring one out for you tonight.
Grooveshark was a fantastic service and the music brought joy to thousands of music lovers. Thank you.
Wow, for people close to him, waiting for the results, that time must feel like an eternity. Why does it take that long?
Josh's last words to me on an email.
Did this bother anyone else?
Then something like this happens and, just, _fuck_. I don't know how to handle it. Someone my age, doing something very similar to me, just dies. That's it. Story's over.
A few weeks ago I told my CEO that I intended to quit and pursue a dream that I've been wanting to pursue for a long time now. My boss seemed pretty surprised -- it's a really good job after all, with good pay, at a good company. I gave him an argument that began with, "I'm going to die. Not like, I'm going to die soon. I don't have a disease or anything. I don't know when it's going to happen, but it could happen soon." And then I went on to talk about pursuing said dream.
At the time it felt like a really silly argument -- like, I'm not even thirty yet and I'm thinking about how I'm going to die someday. Then something like this happens. And death feels so much closer, so much more real. Like a nightmare just waiting around the corner, ending my story before I'm done with it.
I think it's a bit strange how people compare themselves and their lives to some imaginary metric, as if you need to get a certain number of points before the game ends. Sure, you can use strategy guides, wall bugs, and precise timing to win the prize as fast as you can with as high a score as you can. But the most important part of playing a game, much like living life, is not to win - it's to enjoy playing!
It's not silly to want to accomplish things and to work towards your goals right now. But don't let the eventuality of death be the reason you get off your butt. Make it that you just really want to get in the game and play.
Well, as the years went by, I managed to survive. Dying young is an anomaly. It's rare. Do what you want in your life, but you will probally make it to old age. It does go by quick, so have some fun. In my case, the fear of death lessened as I got older. The lessening of the fear of death might be the only thing that age offers? No--most fear went down with each year that passed. Some of it was learning? For instance, for years, I didn't declair a bankruptcy because I optimistically overstated my income on a credit card application. I talked to a good lawyer, and he said "You along with everyone else!". "Of course--no one admits it though?" (I not stating it's good to lie, but knowledge lessens fear. Along, with a good lawyer? Oh yea, if you live a risky life; get to know the legal system. Know those statute of limitations.) Again went off base, I just saying you will statistically make it old age.
A few years worth of stress (life/startup/etc.) managed to explode in a single night thanks to a rather traumatic experience with alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs, and in the weeks that have followed I've come to realize my anxieties come from this extreme fear of death/impermanence.
I'm still taking things day by day, and the panic attacks are passing more easily every day. I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your experience. Reading little things like this from other people has helped me more than I can express :)
Like Alan Watts said "You are something that the whole universe is doing .... in the same way that a wave is something the whole ocean is doing".
I can't remember anything before I was born. That wasn't painful at all. Why should I assume that it will be different after I'm dead?
I'm sure even Marcus Aurelius got tired of talking about death at some point and simply went out to get a beer or hug a warm body. Let's go do that. :-)
Most speculation is a bunch of hot air, but such threads also provide a place to talk about the deceased and his works, and to talk about other, related things. I, for one, appreciate the vast majority of conversation attached to this HN post.
It may be a little different here, but the experience with risky sports is that a thread examining the cause may include suggestions that the person was somewhat at fault.
Many of the people mourning someones passing would prefer such discussions not be interleaved with celebrating their accomplishments or friends grieving the loss.
I certainly think both conversations should happen. But humans being human, it isn't always the best thing for them to happen in the same place at the same time.
Unfortunately, the method by which posts get to and stay on the front page ensure that HN will never be able to perform this sort of segmentation.
No need to call for a tech-solution, when the solution is simply to be found in human decency and kindness.
Having gone through a quite similar loss myself recently, I view things maybe slightly different and would not have liked reading/hearing speculation about fathers death while mourning his loss and having to deal with the shock of his last farewell.
I, too have lost enemies, acquaintances, friends, and family. My position regarding public speculation as to any aspect of each one's demise was the same then as it is now.
Metafilter's solution to the desire of some to engage in speculation and of others to not intermingle that speculation with well-wishes and sympathy is first and foremost a social one. Moderators and community participants steer misdirected conversation to the appropriate thread.
It is true that Mefi's software[0] makes this guidance far easier to achieve than HN's software [1]. Frankly, I'm quietly calling for a technical change that will allow the HN community to enact a large cultural change.
The technical change alone is woefully insufficient. Without a corresponding cultural change, speculation and well-wishes will remain intermixed.
[0] Anything posted by a member appears on the front page. The latest X posts are displayed on the front page. Posts fall off of the front page as new ones come in.
[1] Member posts must receive a certain -unknown- number of upvotes to appear on the front page. Posts that appear on the front page require a constant stream of additional votes in order to stay on the front page.
Perhaps not, but speculating on cause of death is nonetheless considered in extremely poor taste. Most people _would_ have a problem with it.
This feeling is far from universal. Never forget that most of us live in our own social bubble.
It would very be nice if -as braythwayt mentioned a little bit earlier- we could section off speculation from condolences and remembrances. Unfortunately, HN -with its relatively short lived posts, flat posting namespace, and votes-make-topics-stick-on-the-frontpage mechanism- is not able to meet this need.
I don't know, but it would shock me to the bone if someone could truly get angry enough at a man like him, to try and hurt him. He knew like we all knew, Grooveshark was never going to last, but it reinforced the point that Napster proved and I think that was always one of the major goals of the project.
That being said, I wish all the best to the Grooveshark family. It's never easy to lose someone like that, it always is hard.
> "Lori Greenberg, his mother, said Monday he had no health problems and she was told by police who investigated Sunday night that there was no evidence of foul play, injuries or drugs."
People can be killed in ways that are difficult to trace, especially before there is the benefit of autopsy results.
I am not suggesting that this is what happened in this case, I'm just saying that it is far from entirely ruled out.
They probably just didn't see any drugs lying around. If he didn't have some sort of undiagnosed medical condition, he may have very well OD'd on something. Research chemicals, xanax and opiate combo, etc... It's fairly common for people to OD on those things and they're all readily available.
Hard to believe it takes so long in the 21st century. Is that bureaucracy or science?
To give an anecdotal story. I use Diazepam to control muscle spasms and cramps caused by a neurological disorder.
I took my kids to an amusement park and took Dramamine (over the counter motion sickness medication) so I wouldn't get sick on the rides. About 20 minutes later I was a complete zombie, so bad I sat down and could not get back up because I was in such a stupor.
Turns out these two drugs have some serious interactions with each other, including sudden death and heart failure. To this day I consider myself lucky.
I'm going to miss him. He, and my years at Grooveshark, changed my life. He changed all of Gainesville.
Undiagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
It appears to be Florida law, at least (http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Displ...).
What? Not at all. If I see a report of an untimely and otherwise mysterious death the most likely possibilities are some hidden medical condition or a drug/alcohol mishap. Murder isn't that common, or easy to disguise as an accident.
Sad loss for his family and friends.
I only knew him briefly, but I'm grateful for the chance to have known him. The other commenters are right, he was an incredibly positive person, and he did change Gainesville for the better. A great loss. My thoughts are with his friends and his family.
Then.. what the hell happened?
I don't want to play conspiracy too hard here -- could be she's hiding some health issues? but given the recording industry's links with aggressive legislation (TPP, piracy laws), this makes me wonder:
"Several record companies had sued the online music streaming service over copyright violations."