14 ms·
Some terrible personal news
- atom_enger 9y agoMatt - if you see this I'm terribly sorry for your loss. I just married my best friend in December and I'd be so lost without her. I can't imagine how you're feeling. I don't know what else to say besides that I'm sending you love and support from across the net. Stay strong my friend, your blog has powered many of my adventures into SEO and beyond.
- danielvf 9y agoFor those wondering who Matt is, he’s a fifteen plus year Googler, ex head of Safe Search and web anti-spam, now acting director of the US Digital Service.
- senatorobama 9y agoWow. Fifteen years in a single company.
- gambiting 9y agoIs that....weird? My coworker has worked here for 25 years now, and he's still "just" a programmer, was never interested in taking a managerial/lead position. There's plenty of programmers who have 10~20 years of seniority here. And it's a games company, so it's not like these people work on some archaic systems - major, triple A releases everyone heard about.
- senatorobama 9y agoYes, because it's common knowledge to change companies every ~3 years to get a 20%+ salary increase instead of a miserly 0-10%.
- danpalmer 9y agoWhen you make enough, making more money means less to you and you care much more about the workplace, the people, the mission. Either that, or find a company that does raises in line with what you’d get from moving. Netflix is famous for this (and has high retention), but there are other companies. The company I work for has a similar approach and I know I’m unlikely to make more at another company unless I move into finance, in which case see above.
- senatorobama 9y agoHow do you plan to move into finance?
- mstibbard 9y agoI think where he said "see above" he was indicating he had no desire to go into finance due to "the workplace, the people, the mission"
- dsacco 9y ago> Netflix is famous for this (and has high retention) Netflix has high turnover, about 15-20% depending on source.
- coryfklein 9y agoEverything I have heard has been anecdotal and contradicts this. Do you happen to _have_ the source for your information? I admit I don't for mine.
- dsacco 9y agoSure. Netflix's Chief Product Officer, Neil Hunt, has provided the 15% statistic directly in interviews. There are a few places you can find him saying this, but the first one I found by searching was this: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/netflix-redefined-american-company-culture-do-same-abroad-fairchild/?trk=prof-post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/netflix-redefined-american-co.... Other estimates (typically by employees self-reporting) put it at about 20%. Keep in mind about half of those are involuntary departures. Personally, I think that involuntary departures are a meaningful measure when we're talking about employee retention, but there are reasonable arguments to the contrary. More pertinently, Netflix's culture is somewhat unique among tech companies of its size in that it fires very quickly. Contributing my own anecdata here: I am familiar with current and past employees at Netflix who have told me personally that plenty of people are fired from Netflix because they don't jive with the culture, not necessarily because they are incompetent. That's not intended to be a remark about Netflix being a toxic company; on the contrary, I think Netflix is pretty self-aware about its "corporate values." But that means that engineers who could succeed at Google, Facebook, etc might not succeed at Netflix because the latter looks for a lot of self-direction and career ambition, not just competence. Circling back to the point: I've seen some people slice off involuntary termination numbers when discussing attrition at tech companies, but I don't think that's appropriate. Sometimes people leave because they're intellectually or financially unsatisfied, and that would mostly comprise the ~7.5-10% that leave voluntarily. But if the bar for being fired is lower, it's probably useful to incorporate the involuntary departures, because there's an argument many of them would leave voluntarily even if not fired due to a culture mismatch.
- isostatic 9y agoAt my company anyone here less than 10 years is a newbie. You're not an old timer until you reach 30 years, and a few grandees make it to 50. It's a big old company though (one of the oldest in the field), and this is in broadcast engineering which is far more conservative. IME Peoppe in the Internet facing parts are far more flitty. While some older engineers are happy to retreat into comfortably old technologies like cameras and microphones, there's plenty more who havve spent the time to learn about the trend towards IP. They are very valuable, in contrast to say a "generic" network engineer, because they understand the domain, they fundamentally know a 20ms outage on a network is catastrophic.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoMy father is a network engineer, and has more or less been working in the same company for over 30 years now. He started as a radio technician out of high school, and transitioned into internet networking in the early 90's. Technically, he's worked for several different companies. For a while he was working for a different company, but doing exactly the same work, with the same people, in the same building. I don't think it will be easy to replace network engineers like him, who have been doing the job literally as long as the consumer internet has existed.
- ryandrake 9y agoI would say it’s unusual. Most places I’ve worked, it was more or less a bimodal distribution: lots and lots of people with tenures of less than 5 years, a bunch execs and highly paid in-crowd folks who were there for 15+ years, and a vast emptiness of people with 5-15 years in company. I think a lot of people leave as soon as their stock vests (3-4 years) and it’s obvious they are not on an upward track. And the few who got on to the upward tracks are set for life and have no incentive to leave ever. There’s no middle ground.
- 5555624 9y agoJuly will mark 34 years at the same company. It's been an interesting ride. When I started, what little computing we did was on a shared mainframe, miles away, or on old Wang word processors. We had one IBM PC, acquired without permission, in a closet. (I don't miss 8-inch floppy disks.) The introduction of PCs, installing networks, developing our own systems, etc. I've been part of it all. I've always had the flexibiity to try something new. I almost became management a couple of years ago; but, I'm glad to just be a senior engineer.
- ubermonkey 9y agoI have a friend who's been a programmer at Apple for 30 years.
- scarface74 9y agoI know about Chris Espinosa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Espinosa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Espinosa). I didn't think anyone else had been their 30+ years.
- jsmthrowaway 9y agoMany, actually. It was quite common to run into 30+ year folks at all levels, including EPM (I know of four off the top of my head).
- scarface74 9y agoThat says a lot. I would have jumped ship around 1995-1997. Things were bleak for Apple and everything they shipped software wise was buggy, behind the times, In 1994. Apple was on top of the world. They were the number one or number two computer seller and the PPC Macs were introduce and then Windows 95 happened.
- ubermonkey 9y agoWell, Chris has been there for even longer. To be a single-digit employee, you had to start in the 70s -- i.e., 40 years ago. My friend -- I don't think it'd be appropriate to name him -- has "only" been there 30, which means he joined a healthy-sized Apple already 10 years into its life.
- jrnichols 9y agoAn old girlfriend/still friend of mine started as a temp with Apple in 1998, became a permanent employee, and is still there. And another friend just moved on from Cisco after 20 years. It happens.
- SloopJon 9y agoTwenty years here. I've gotten married, bought my first place, had a child. The manager who hired me is still here, along with many others. We've lost some coworkers, always seemingly too soon. I've been to a couple of wakes, one for a coworker's wife. I don't want to say we're like family, but we look out for each other. The year before the company rolled out 2.5x salary life insurance, someone started a crowdfunding campaign after a coworker's sudden death that raised over $50K in one day. I know I've been here too long, but I'll miss it. I grew up here.
- softawre 9y agoIt's not as uncommon as HN makes you believe these days. I've been at a place for 11 years, moving to new projects every few years, gotten large pay raises over the years to keep ahead of market. It's possible, and it's kinda great to be honest.
- senatorobama 9y agoWhere do you work?
- ebbv 9y agoI’m so sorry. She sounds like a wonderful person and a blessing to everyone who knew her.
- kposehn 9y agoI wish I had something poignant or heartfelt to say, but all I can really say is I'm terribly sorry to hear this. Words fail me this time. I can't imagine what it must feel like.
- jackfrodo 9y agoI'm so sorry for this loss. Matt spoke at UNC my freshman year, and his talk confirmed my itch to pursue computer science as a career. So Matt, thanks for the influence you've had on my life, and I owe thanks to Cindy, too.
- Matt_Cutts 9y agoThat's really helpful to hear. Thanks very much, and I hope computer science serves you well.
- bhartzer 9y agoSo sorry to hear this.
- abc_ta 9y agoWhy is this on HN?
- dang 9y agoHN community members have a long history of following Matt's work and interacting with him. He's someone who gives you the sense of being a good person even if you've never met him. He has helped a lot of HN users. There are few people that this community has both respect and affection for, in such large and equal measure. I'd say that's why this is on HN.
- lathiat 9y agoThis hurts :(
- tranchms 9y agoI am a 31 year old man, drinking in a bar, alone, weeping as I read this story. My heart goes out to you and your family. I’m so sorry.
- sizzle 9y agoHope you are okay friend.
- gitgud 9y agoHope you're doing alright dude, sending a virtual hug from Australia.
- aecorredor 9y agoHang in there bud. Things always change.
- ridgeguy 9y agoI don't know you, but I understand your loss. A wife, a best friend...leaves a big void. Lean on your friends.
- Waterluvian 9y agoMy wife of one year is asleep behind me. She always sleeps in here to be nearby because I love staying up late. Going to go sidle up to her. Sorry for your loss. Thanks for the perspective.
- EugeneOZ 9y agoNothing will fill this loss. No "sorry" word will help. World is different for you now, and it's time for grieving. There is life and death. There's love and memories.
- snuxoll 9y agoNothing ever fills the loss of a loved one, it doesn’t matter if they’re a spouse, a parent, a child or a pet - a loved one is forever missing from your life. What I can say is with time things get better. No, time doesn’t heal all wounds - the loss of a loved one will stay with you for the rest of your life, but you will go from thinking about it every minute to a couple times a day to a couple times a week, to a few times a year, etc. Sometimes the pain will still hit you like a fully loaded truck, other times you will instead recall the joy that was brought to your life and be thankful for the time you had however brief. I have absolutely no idea how much pain Matt is having to endure right now, and I won’t pretend to imagine - so the best I can say is the above, it does get better, but that doesn’t ever make it “okay”. All we can ever hope is that as time passes those moments of happy remembrance outweigh the gut punches, and I hope that everyone who has suffered a loss reaches that point.
- staunch 9y agoNothing can take away the time they shared in life together. This is the only fact that comforts me when confronted with the tragedy of our existence.
- mindfulplay 9y agoI am so sorry to hear this. PSA: please, please enroll in a CPR class. It's incredibly simple to learn and administer and you will learn so many things like the role of aspirin, AED usage and of course cpr.
- xapata 9y agoIt sounds like the paramedics arrived in a timely manner. No need for PSAs today.
- mindfulplay 9y agoI just wanted to steal someone's attention while they are reading it. I know it's a bad time to talk about it, but really please register for a CPR class near you. Totally sad and didn't in anyway mean to diminish this news.
- ohyoutravel 9y agoMatt is my boss. He is the kindest and best leader I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Cindy, his wife, was a jewel. My heart hurts so much for him.
- mrhappyunhappy 9y agoGive him a big hug for everyone.
- stvkoch 9y ago+1
- TomAnthony 9y agoYou are lucky to work for/with Matt. I've never met him, but traded a few emails whilst he was at Google and he was always kind and helpful. I can't imagine how he must feel. I very much hope he is doing ok.
- DoreenMichele 9y ago@}}>----- (It's a rose, in case that isn't obvious.)
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- RickJWag 9y agoSo sorry for your loss, Matt. She was far too young.
- lisper 9y agoMatt was a colleague in Google's early days. He embodied all of the best qualities of the organization. He can do anything he wants to, but he chooses to spend his time improving Google's search experience, and freely giving of his wisdom and expertise through his blog. If there was ever a person who did not deserve this, it's Matt.
- speby 9y ago> If there was ever a person who did not deserve this, it's Matt. Let's be clear... NO ONE deserves to die or to lose a loved one. And yet...
- atomical 9y agoInjecting politics?
- atomical 9y agoHow the fuck am I getting flagged for this?
- austenallred 9y agoHow was a comment that says “no one deserves to have a spouse die” injecting politics?
- atomical 9y agoYou conveniently left off the controversy seeking part.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> How was a comment that says “no one deserves to have a spouse die” injecting politics? The “And yet...” after that part, which basically inverts the overall message and is suggesting Cutts comes closer than most to deserving it, is injecting a negative personal judgement; it's not overtly political, but given the nature of the negative commentary Cutts has received, when he has received negative commentary, on HN, it's not surprising that it would be read as injecting something that could broadly be described as politics.
- rokhayakebe 9y agoRejoice, Matt, for YOU are one of the few who for the rest of their lives get to say "We knew each other for 23 years and we were married for 18 years,"'till death did us apart. If I can say such a statement in the end I will cry one tear of gratitude for every tear of sorrow. I hope you can find the strength.
- clhodapp 9y agoHe lost a person that he greatly loved at a relatively young age and you presume to tell him to be happy about it because now he can lord his widowed status over people. I'm generally not into making direct personal character attacks on the internet but I think that outlook is disgusting.
- rokhayakebe 9y agoThanks, I accept how you read it through your lenses and responded in kind, but it does not reflect my intent and feeling.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- clhodapp 9y agoThank you for clarifying. I apologize for my overly aggressive response.
- rokhayakebe 9y agoIt's All Love, Friend. If I am honest your comment will make me write more clearly and choose words more wisely. Everyone can/should improve.
- abritinthebay 9y agoI think you’re misreading that but it’s a bit clumsily written so it’s understandable. Celebrating what you had, and the persons life with you, rather than dwelling on the loss is actually recommended as a healthy way to grieve (though we each grieve differently)
- dang 9y agoI'm so sorry. My heart goes out to you and all who love Cindy. This sort of shock changes everything.
- pbw 9y agoI'm so sorry to hear this awful news Matt. What a shock.
- vfulco 9y agoBro, this will take a long time. Be gentle with yourself. It is the club no one wants to be a member of. I wish you peace and comfort. ~ A 4 year widower of a 37 year old bright light in the world extinguished decades too soon
- srean 9y agoIt does indeed take a long time. One thing I would add though is not to rush, let it take as much time it takes. Its not that things become fine after that time has been spent. One merely becomes more functional. One doesn't have to fight the "why did I even wake up today ?" everyday.
- chasb 9y agoMatt, if you read this, I am so sorry for your loss. My heart goes out to you and your family.
- mrbill 9y agoI lost my wife suddenly in 2009, she was 34. Losing your significant other is something that you never get over - you live with the emptiness and the hurt, and you learn to move on and hope that the "fog" eventually lifts. It's something that only someone else who has been through the same experience will understand. I was lucky to meet a friend who had lost her husband a couple years before, and she helped me through the hardest times. Matt, if you ever read these comments, all my thoughts and condolences for you. I know "thoughts and prayers" does nothing, but a lot more people care than you realize. Hang in there.
- northwest65 9y ago>I’m unmanned and unmoored without her I found that quite cutting. I'm not sure I could go on if my wife died prematurely. My mind has turned to this on occassions when people close to me have suffered severe illness or died, and I just can't see in my minds eye how I could cope.
- Myrmornis 9y agoMay I ask absolutely sincerely: how differently do you feel about the scenario of your wife suddenly leaving you?
- didgeoridoo 9y agoDude.
- Myrmornis 9y agoThis thread is about loss. What I referred to can be an extremely acute form of loss. There may be people in this thread struggling to deal with the form of loss I referred to.
- lopmotr 9y agoI agree it's important. Divorcees don't get smothered with caring like widow(er)s do despite how devastating it can be. Perhaps worse because not only have you lost them but they're also telling you you're not wanted.
- CharlesW 9y ago.
- VikingCoder 9y agoThank you, Matt, for the time you shared with her. I'm sure you made her life better. That's all any of us can hope for.
- blinkingled 9y agoVery sorry for your loss Matt. Like you said may time, friends and family help you heal and get back on track when you're ready to. Take all the help you can.
- is_true 9y agoI wrote to Matt once asking a technical question about Google and to be honest I wasn't expecting an answer. But a couple of days later he took the time to answer. Such a great guy. Hope him the best.
- tgtweak 9y agoA huge asset to Google and to the community. Couldn't have happened to a less deserving person.
- PakG1 9y agoI got married last year. Before I met my wife, I wasn't sure what I was doing with my life. For a time, I was fairly depressed about lots of mistakes I had made. I wasn't sure I had anyone who could understand me or help me. My brother introduced me to my wife and we hit it off. My wife gave me emotional stability and motivation to do things. The few times we've had fights, I cry when I hurt her. She is everything to me. If I lost her, I might be even worse off than before I met her. Maybe I'd be able to remember everything she says and move forward with strength in my eyes. Maybe. I feel for Matt and anyone else who has to endure a loss.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- hackits 9y agoPlease go and see a Psychologist.
- dang 9y agoThis crosses into personal attack, which is not allowed here and which we ban accounts for. It was also particularly tasteless to post that here. Would you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not post like this again?
- bane 9y agoI was having a lousy day, and so was my wife. I realized i was focused on some stupid work problem and not her. I dropped what I was doing and we just spent a few hours of quality time just talking and connecting and encouraging each other. It was the best decision I've made all day. After reading this I realize how much better a decision it was to spend time with my loved one. I'm really sorry to hear this news.
- luckydude 9y agoThat sucks, I'm sorry Matt, don't know you so it means little but I'm sorry. It really sucks that you had no warning, no time to spend in the last days. Knowing that it is coming sucks but being taken like that sucks (I've lost family to cancer, that is both better and more sucky). It's clear that you loved her and that just makes it worse. Shit. I keep thinking of stuff to say but it's all about me and my wife, don't want it to be about us. So I'm sorry for your loss, I hope you have family to support you, and I hope things get better for you.
- mjsweet 9y agoI’m so sorry Matt. My heart goes out to you and yours in this time of grief and reflection. What a wonderful blog post about her, her love of life was so evident in your thoughtful words.
- rasikjain 9y agoSorry to hear this news. Learned lot of things from your valuable comments and feedback on HN. Hope you find strength again.
- tgtweak 9y agoMatt, I still remember being a young webmaster watching your YouTube videos, almost immediately whenever you'd release one. I remember joking about how you never changed your shirts, then you put out a video saying that you film several weeks of questions in one sitting and that you were going to change shirts between questions from then on. I always thought that was really cool of you to be that receptive and open to the community, always reading the comments and being what seemed like the only source of truth in Google during a time of hidden updates and obscure policies. You've given so much to everyone, I can only imagine how much you must have given eachother. If there's anything the community can do to help, please don't hesitate, you've helped us all in ways small and large. Stay strong, she lives on in you and everyone else she touched - continue to treat her good by taking care of yourself and everyone else she is a part of.
- Dan_JiuJitsu 9y agoYour beautiful remembrance of your cherished love is both touching and poignant. Thank you for sharing this life lesson. I hope the act of writing down and expressing your feelings can bring you some comfort.
- mavenave 9y agoWhat is this spam on HN? How is this relevant? Mods please remove this.
- dang 9y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16541934 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16541934
- helsinki 9y agoMatt and I both come from the same rural / impoverished area in Kentucky and we both studied CS under the same professors. I have looked up to him for years as a role model. Im very sorry to hear of your loss, Matt.
- mrhappyunhappy 9y agoUnimaginably sad news. :( I hope you make it through buddy. I just learned my father who I was not close to for several decades has died - just yesterday. I have mixed emotions about someone who was very distant to me and can't even imagine losing my wife. The only thing I can think of that would keep me alive is my son. I don't know what I want to say but I guess maybe there is comfort in being around family in this very difficult time. I will think about you and your wife, please take care.
- iamalchemist 9y agoSo sorry to hear that Matt. Stay strong and stay positive.
- WalterGR 9y agoTerribly sorry to hear this, Matt. I'm a member of something like 200 meetups in the DMV area. Let me know if you need help keeping busy.
- killjoywashere 9y agoFor those who don't know, Matt is the director of US Digital Service and all-round great guy.
- tathougies 9y agoI'm sorry for your loss.
- wslack 9y agoI saw Cindy just a few weeks ago. She was wonderful and kind as usual, and she was a positive presence, the kind of which we can never have enough of. This is heartbreaking.
- raverbashing 9y agoTerrible news, but at the start of the text it seemed it was an even worse situation, with three people passing away at the same time. Glad (well, glad if not the best word) it was just a colorful description
- amirexdev 9y agoI agree that no one can truly understand what you are going through, except one who has gone through it. I'm blessed to have been married for 10 years, but if I'm honest, I know I have taken my wife for granted at times. I'm so sorry for your loss, but this is an important reminder to live life to the fullest with no regrets, because you don't know how long you or your loved ones truly have.
- eastdakota 9y agoThis is incredibly sad news.
- blkhp19 9y agoAfter reading the very small amount of information provided about the reason for her passing, I can't help but be curious about the exact reason. Sometimes it's comforting to know that something was a freak accident, versus something preventable. Does anyone know what might have happened in this case? I certainly hope this isn't perceived as being insensitive. I can't imagine the pain he's going through, and I truly do hope he finds some amount of comfort or normalcy in this unimaginably painful time.
- JshWright 9y agoGiven her age, recent travel, and progression of symptoms, it seems very likely it was an acute pulmonary embolism.
- copperx 9y agoWhat does travel have to do with it?
- blkhp19 9y agoPerhaps long periods of sitting on a flight? If you suspect this is happening to you (all of the sudden you can't really breathe), is there anything you can even do? Or just hope it's not bad enough to be fatal?
- JshWright 9y agoIf you experience sudden shortness of breath, call 911 (or whatever your local emergency services number is).
- js2 9y agoGo to a doctor right away. There are anticoagulants which can dissolve blood clots and/or ways of physically preventing the clot from reaching the lungs. Also an ounce of prevention: avoid extended sitting; exercise regularly. https://www.webmd.com/lung/tc/pulmonary-embolism-treatment-overview https://www.webmd.com/lung/tc/pulmonary-embolism-treatment-o... https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/deep-vein-thrombosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20352557 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/deep-vein-thr...
- fnbr 9y agoI'm so sorry.
- Torai 9y agoI like sharing work related things in public. I don't like sharing personal things in public.
- the-dude 9y agoIt is not about you.
- gravis7777 9y agoHe isn't the only one questioning this...
- the-dude 9y agoAnd still this is not the time and place.
- criddell 9y agoYet here you are sharing your personal opinion.
- gravis7777 9y agoyes - God forbid someone have an alternative opinion to yours.
- criddell 9y agoYou don't see any irony in Torai's comment?
- barking 9y agoThat's a really lovely tribute to his wife. Good of him to mention the mental health issue as well. So many people grow up thinking they or their family are the only ones and that it's best kept quiet about.
- DanielBMarkham 9y agoLoss like that is terrible. If it helps any, Matt, I found that writing down as much as I could somehow helped me get my head around it. It didn't help with the pain, but it was somehow reassuring to know that the feelings I had right after the loss had been captured somewhere forever. I don't have any words of wisdom, and my sharing my own story probably won't help. Somehow we must carry on. There are many times that I forget why we must somehow carry on, but I find if I just cling to that phrase long enough, I eventually remember again. Our thoughts are with you.
- namenotrequired 9y agoFor those curious about writing to help deal with tragedy, look into the research by James W Pennebaker. TLDR is it is proven to help.
- Egidius 9y agoMatt Cutts is one of those rare persons who appear to be so nice that I find it admirable. I wish him and his family all the best in processing this tragic event. Life can be so unfair.
- zavi 9y agoVery sad news. Stay strong, Matt.
- k__ 9y agoA neighbor from when I was a kid died in her sleep a few years ago. She married when I was 8, bought a home, had two kids and lived till I was 25. Then, one day she slept on the couch and never woke up. Some aneurism im the brain killed her without any warning. Life is cruel :/
- dhimes 9y agoMatt is one of the true good guys out there. This just isn't fair- to his love or to him. May you find peace, Matt.
- adgulacti 9y ago1st time a HN post brings tears to my eyes. wish it was easier to value & preserve what you already have.
- Jaruzel 9y agoI don't know about anyone else, but if my partner suddenly died, I would be a complete non-functioning wreck for weeks (if not months). I have no idea how Matt found the wherewithal to sit down and write that blog post. I know I couldn't.
- wst_ 9y agoI do feel sorry for the guy. I really do. But how is it possible that one guy's tragedy got to the front page of HN? Why everyone's talking about his wife, but not about others, who probably left family and friends in grief the same way.
- exodust 9y agoApparently a lot of people know him, or know of him, so it becomes "news" of sorts, if out of place in HN context. Can you feel the pressure not to say anything except a condolence message? I certainly can, but I won't because I've never heard of him. If the man himself had died, I get why that might find its way here because then you could talk about his work etc. Personal loss happens to every one of us, be it family or friends. It's part of life, it's heart breaking, it's horrible, it sucks, it's painful. Then, you draw strength from their memory and move on because there's no other choice.
- askafriend 9y agoHe's been a regular contributor here on HN for nearly 10 years - here's his profile: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Matt_Cutts https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Matt_Cutts He's also been an active blogger, sharing his insights from all the work he's done at Google and beyond. These blogs have been discussed here on HN often. I think people here feel like he's a part of our community and a positive part of the tech community at large.
- hakanderyal 9y agoI've never met you, and I live thousands of miles away from you. I'm also a Google opponent because of the questionable privacy practices. But your work have inspired me on more than one occasion. I've always loved following your comments on HN. I'm so sorry for your loss. I wish there were things that I can say to make you feel any better.
- FraKtus 9y agoI already lost too many peoples that were important to me... I just kept moving, working, and hanging to positive peoples/colleague around me. All my thought to you!
- CapitalistCartr 9y agoDying doesn't scare worry me at all. I've died twice before. My deepest fear is something, anything, happening to my wife. She gets a cough and I worry; she has to go to the doctor and I get chills. I don't even like saying, "What if something .. . ". Now I think its going to be a sucky day.
- ausjke 9y agoSo sorry for the loss. I'm having a busy life as everyone else and ignoring what matters most. I now need spend more time with loved ones.
- benfarahmand 9y agoMatt, I'm so sorry to read this news. I hope you spend this difficult time with the people in your life that are sensitive to you and your needs.
- jason_slack 9y agoMatt, so sorry for your loss. I only know you through old YT videos. Reading this I am so thankful I told my wife I love her this morning before she departed for work and due to scheduling we wont see each other for 26 hours. Damn. I don't know what I would do without my wife. She reminds me to change my clothes and shower when I have been coding for days and always makes sure I am warm enough while I sleep.
- jaderobbins1 9y agoSad reminders to cherish the moments you have with those you care about because they are fleeting.
- sbussard 9y agoI'm sorry for your loss, Matt. Thanks for sharing.
- bsvalley 9y ago"Please give your friends or family a hug for me. We never know how much time we have with someone, and sometimes it’s all too short." This is a wake up call for all of us. Thanks for your positive impact. That is the real value you get from the Internet people. All my thoughts and condolences for you and your family.
- rossta 9y agoMy wife passed away in her sleep in 2016. It was unexpected. I woke up like it was any other day and then it wasn't. I never imagined something like that would happen. Learning how to carry on without my partner and my best friend has made these past two years the most challenging of my life. In this time, I've learned a few things about grief. That it affects everyone differently. That there's no right or wrong way to grieve. Some of us feel guilt, anger, sadness, depression, or numbness... or all of the above. I also discovered that my wife's passing and my grief made other people feel uncomfortable. I sensed it was hard for folks to know what to say or do. And that's ok—there isn't much you can say or do that will change things for those closest to loss. But, speaking for myself, it does mean a lot when someone reaches out and shares their thoughts. In my experience, the best things to say are to acknowledge the hurt and to share how you feel. Avoid trying to make sense of it (you can't) or that things will get better (you don't know). If you're able, say the person's name. If you knew the person, tell your grieving friend how much she meant to you. Matt, I didn't know your wife, Cindy, but I met you once and recall being struck by how smart, genuine, and kind you were, aside from all the great work you've done to help me learn about SEO. From what you've shared about Cindy, I can tell she is an amazing person, that she is loved, and that she is missed dearly. My heart goes out to you and your family.
- Haul4ss 9y agoMy wife also passed away unexpectedly in her sleep in 2016. My heart aches for Matt. I don't know him or his wife, but I know the feeling of being unmoored. In fact I've used that same word to describe it. I agree that people never know how to act about the situation. It's weird now to think of all of the people I have met who only know me as a widower, who never knew me when my wife was alive. I appreciated the outpouring of support I received in the immediate aftermath. It was overwhelming, but not unwelcome.
- guinness74 9y agoBeautiful tribute for your wife.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- js2 9y agoI'm terribly sorry for your loss.
- pvaldes 9y agoThis is the problem with the hearts of feline nature. Can't be retained for so long as we would wish. They laugh with us, kiss us, mock of us, wink and fly away chasing the breeze. My sympathy and respect for matt, mrbill, webkike, rossta, joering2 and their families and loved ones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUJLdC6wqno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUJLdC6wqno
- qaz_plm 9y agoDeepest condolences, Matt. If you need a rock to lean on I'm here for you.
- cafard 9y agoHe has to carry on to raise their children. It is an extra burden, but also an extra incentive to find the strength to go on. I wish them the best.