
On Leave - uptown
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/on-leave/
======
tannerc
I first encountered the idea of regular sabbaticals from Stefan Sagmeister[1].

The theory goes: why save all of your time-off for retirement, when you're
likely to be too old to really enjoy that time? Instead, Sagmeister says, work
for a few years and then take some time off—up to a year—now, while you're
still fairly young and capable of doing worthwhile things with that time.

The idea is still immensely appealing, but so difficult to pursue here in the
United States. Mostly because we still believe that working every waking hour
of every day of every month is the only way to get ahead and succeed.

I'm glad Matt not only finally found the time to get away, but that his
overseers at Google are letting him do it. How many of us could do the same?

1\.
[http://www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/answers/category/sabbaticals/](http://www.sagmeisterwalsh.com/answers/category/sabbaticals/)

~~~
tzs
Sometimes I think we need to switch the order of work and retirement. After
you finish high school, you should be given a decent lump sum, along with a
good monthly income, and told to go have fun.

This is when you party and travel, and take up things like surfing, biking,
climbing, hang gliding, hiking, and so on...the things that work better when
you have a young body that can do stupid fun dangerous things and maybe
survive.

You get to do this until, say, 40, and then it is time to go to work, or to go
to college and then go to work.

Basically, "Logan's Run" except Carrousel gives you a job instead of death.

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r3m6
>My friend and colleague Amit Singhal took about six weeks off not too long
ago,...

In Europe, we call this simply a summer vacation ;-)

~~~
arjunnarayan
Reminds me of the controversial Cadillac commercial: "Other countries: they
work, they stroll home, they stop by the cafe, ... They take August off. Off.
Why aren't you like that? Why aren't we like that? "

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJSI48gkFc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGJSI48gkFc)

Now, I'm not endorsing this viewpoint---nor am I american---I'm just pointing
out that there is a subset of Americans to whom this is a legitimate viewpoint
(and that group is large enough that this is a legitimately viable
advertisement appealing to their values and life choices).

And despite some folks' collective horror at this commercial (it was mildly---
and intentionally, I would guess--- controversial), this is how most of my
friend group (and me) live our lives. Sure we would never drive a Cadillac,
but we mostly just spend all our time working. I can't think of a single
friend who didn't blink at upending their entire life and moving to a new city
just for an incremental career move. And it's super strange to my few European
friends who value taking August off. Off.

I can sympathize with people who want that level of comfort and vacation. But
then I notice my own decisions: I could easily have studied and lived in
Europe (and I still could), and yet I have chosen not to. Mostly because of
work.

~~~
YZF
Maybe with a little more time off you'd get something more like a Ferrari or
Porsche? :-) You need to take some time off to get some creative juices
flowing. It just seems like some sort of empty existence, you work for the
sake of working more?

Take a bit of time off and you'll see it's not so bad.

------
zshprompt
It makes me sad he had to wait 15 years for this. 15 years is what you get for
manslaughter with good behavior.

~~~
x1798DE
I think 15 years of not having a few months off from working at Google is
slightly better than 15 years in a US prison, not really a fair comparison.

~~~
zshprompt
Of course, was a joke. But there will always be more work that we can possibly
do. You are never really done in a successful business. So I feel sad that he
made these sacrifices at the expense of his family life. The saddest part is
that the code he wrote will probably be a distant memory in 20-30 years.

------
TheMagicHorsey
If you have a tolerance for risk, you can do it without the riches and fame of
a Matt Cutts.

You also have to have a tolerance for that nagging feeling in your head that
you are not being productive, while your peers are getting ahead in their
careers.

I took a year off in my twenties to backpack, after I'd been out of college
and working for six years. I had some trouble finding a job when I came back
to work again, but it wasn't too bad. I fell behind some of my peers that
worked the whole time, but I don't regret my experiences.

Again, now in my late thirties I took another year off to pursue a business
venture that is high risk. Again, strictly financially speaking, I should have
stayed with my previous employer. What I'm doing only makes sense if you think
about life as a series of experiences, and not strictly about getting the
highest corporate title (or most money) possible before death.

I'm not wealthy enough to stop working. A lot of people would say that what
I'm doing is irresponsible. But you only have one life.

As a side note, the way the tax system works here in the states, working every
other year, from June to June, would probably put you in a better position
with respect to taxes, than working from January to December every other year.

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tristanperry
Sounds like a great opportunity for personal relaxation & development :-)

Oh and I guess this means that Matt Cutts will be commenting in every HN
thread from now on ^^

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jgalt212
As I've said before, Matt has arguably one of the most powerful jobs on the
Internet.

Let's hope whoever gets his seat as head of web spam, will have a short term
to prevent any abuses of power.

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antr
Ironman Vineman is in just over a week, he must of trained for it well before
leaving Google!

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jeriu8
good... he always speaks as if he owns google. He may be knowledgeable but
equally arrogant. Google promotes sites with adwords budget and punishes small
players who dont have enough budget. I hope they make him force retire.

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baq
is this really something worth blogging about? around here - you guessed it,
not US - such behavior is not unusual and you don't have to tell the whole
world that you'll be off work while you're off work.

~~~
TeMPOraL
He's a well known person in many circles, an active HN-er, and a kind of a go-
to person for SEO/spam issues. It's interesting and relevant information for
many of us.

