“No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away,” (Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett)
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Shadowcat co-founder, Matt S. Trout. Matt started Shadowcat Systems with Mark Keating in 2005 after a few years of each of them working for other people’s profit. In recent years Matt had taken a sabbatical from work and from his online community projects due to a battle with health. Matt was just 42 years old.
Sadly he was unable to return to the work that was his passion in life though he kept a strong interest in the modern world and was excited for how we might evolve the systems we all work with each day.
There are no further details to share at this time but you can drop a message to us via the usual channels.
Update 10/07/2025
There have been many people who have reached out to give a comment about how they knew Matt, or how this affected them. Many beautiful words and sentiments, memories and reflections are in the comments on this page. However many of those have been placed on other public sites.
Since there are so many I have repeated those from publicly available posts below. I have used the maxim “it is easier to ask forgiveness than to seek approval” in regards to putting them here as there are so many and I am responding to so many people who have reached out to share their condolences. If you would like to have your comment removed, or updated/corrected, then please let me know.
Jesse Vincent: Fuck Fuck fuck fuck fuck. That’s not fucking alright. God fucking damn it. Fuck. Wherever the fuck you are, Matt, I hope you’re having fun. Love you, man. Also, I think it’s bitingly ironic that the one time I write like Matt, shadowcat’s profanity filter blocks me.
Mike Rozek: One of the most memorable people I’ve ever met. My heart is with everyone who was close with Matt.
Magnus Woldrich: Me too. I liked him a lot, learned a lot from him over the years. 🙁
Dave Cross: Oh, bloody hell. Terrible news. So sorry to hear this.
Mark Stringer: Shocking, awful news 🙁 Condolences to everyone close to him
Burak Gürsoy: My condolences. So young. He was a bit controversial but also very creative. He was just speaking his mind out. I met him a couple of times, one time at the Perl dinner at Fosdem. That last time was back in 2015 IIRC. I recall having a good chat with him at that time. Rest in peace.
Joel Bernstein: That’s awful news. Really sorry to hear it.
Paul Bennett: I didn’t really interact with Matt in real time much, but I lived a good deal of my professional and hobbyist career carried by his ripples, and I believe that will continue to be so.
Marco Fontani: My condolences. I’ll always remember and cherish the few times I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with Matt. Terrible news.
Jason A. Crome: So sad 😞 One of the most helpful and talented people I worked with in our community. He’ll be missed.
Jesse Sheidlower: OMG that’s awful. I’m so sorry to hear this.
Stephen Scaffidi: My condolences, Mark. Matt was a friend and he will be sorely missed.
Aaron Trevena: I’m so sorry to hear we have lost Matt. Some of the biggest leaps I’ve made in my technical understanding have been from a solid shove in my back from him, and he’s made massive contributions to open source software that’s a huge part of my day to day working life now and for the last 15 years. Condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.
Kay Pendle NicNiall: Somehow I find it a comfort to know that bits of his code will be floating around in the digital ether for years to come. Seems completely appropriate for him. I know that sometimes people thought he was being rude but mostly he was just speaking the truth as he saw it, in his own straightforward way. He could also be kind, and generous, and supportive of others. He would always be willing to help if was able, and I do wonder if he were that child maths genius now, he would also have better recognition and support for his neurodivergent mind and its complexities and challenges. In better days, we were good friends and spent many hours talking through all sorts of topics. He will be missed, probably much more than he would have guessed.
Alberto Simões: Sad news.
Mark Stringer: Wow, I’m so sorry to read this, Mark. Condolences to you, his family and friends. Matt was incredibly talented and a huge influence in my journey with perl. His legacy will live on for a very long time
Wallace Reis: Deeply sad news. Matt was my first boss and mentor, have learned so much from him. Condolences to you and Matt’s family and friends.
Magnus Woldrich: I’ll miss mst. So sad to hear this.
Jens Rehsack: This is a sad day for everyone who knew Matt, and a tragic twist of fate for the world.
Paul Mooney: My deepest condolences. I always enjoyed his lightning talks.
Mark Overmeer: It was a delight to continuously battle with Matt about differences in opinion. One of the few people who dared to be different, and always passionate. Condolences Perl community!
Justin Dee: Oh gosh, so sorry to hear. My deepest condolences.
David Dorward: I don’t really have words. It’s been a while since I was regularly in touch with Matt, but he was very influential on my career and will be missed.
Eduardo Marques: Sad news indeed. Condolences to Matt’s family and friends.
Paul Webster: He will be forever missed, and live on in the code. 🙁
Job van Achterberg: Oh no. Matt. I can hear his voice, his laugh! He will be missed. My heartfelt condolences.
Errietta (Erry) Kostala: I was shocked to learn about the death of my friend and mentor Matt Trout.
Matt gave me a chance when I was 19 years old and needed to find an internship as part of my course. He took me in with 0 work experience and threw me right into the deep end, and somehow I survived. He’s an amazing mentor and even though I only worked for him for one year, I learned more in that year than some people can learn in 5. If I were to say I owe my career to somebody, it would be Matt.
Even though he was only my boss for that short period, we remained friends until the very end and I always shared programming or even personal issues with him.
He was deeply loved by all his colleagues and friends, and he was an amazing asset to the Open Source community. He will be greatly missed by all.
Rest in Peace friend, we love you.
Heather Beales: My condolences.
Rick Deller: Sending love my friend
Tomasz Czepiel: I didn’t know him well but from my brief encounters with him I remember this: a vivid intellect and true to himself, in the weird, but always awesome kind of way, so long mst, you were one of the cool cats on the block.
Mark Keating: I would like to thank Curtis publicly. He reached out to me over this article to ensure that it would not cause offence, and as a friend who cared for the feelings of others and particularly was concerned that he would not hurt me. I know that I could have asked for any edit, or removal, but I had no need to. It was clearly written with a calm balance but also from a place of love and friendship. Matt would have appreciated its honesty, in fact he would have, to use a phrase he would use: “lost his fucking shit”, if it wasn’t honest.
Mike Whitaker: Thanks – I expect that was as difficult to write as it was to read. Matt was complex and difficult, and I’m going to miss him.
Joe McMahon: I’m sorry that between one thing and another I’ve drifted away from the Perl community in general, and I am truly sorry to hear this. Thanks for the transparency.
Elaine Ashton: Perl has always had cough difficult personalities and dramas, but I’m sorry to hear of his death and that he struggled with alcohol. He was so young. 🙁 We need to be more empathetic and take care of each other far better given the current reality. Good on you for listening to him in spite of the prior drama.
Mohammad Sajid Anwar: It’s the saddest moment for me. I have fond memories of him, attended nearly every talk of him at LPW. His style of talk was unique. He was always animated when giving talk and also a bit louder. Although, I had seen him so many times but never had the courage to say hi to him. I remember requesting Julien to help me break the ice on the last of the conference at Riga. As always the case, he introduced me. I had the honour to hold the conversation with Matt for 10 minutes. He was sitting by himself at one corner. At the end of the conversation he praised my work and said he followed me. I remember he mentioned that my energy reminds him of his younger days. I am aware of all the controversies around him and I am no one to judge him. I will always remember him as a very talented techie. I have seen his footprint on so many CPAN modules. RIP Matt.
Karen Hoofnagle: I’ve been far from perl for quite a while but a bit of my ancient Catalyst/DBIx::Class code is still running at my company and I know there’s still more of other people’s where I am. I saw him present at a few yapcs and frankly had a rather “um, are you really ok?” reaction to him back then even though I doubt I ever spoke to him apart from asking a clarifying question in a talk. I’m sorry he’s gone. He gave the world a lot of solutions to a lot of problems — both people who actually used his work and people who don’t know his name and just know the app their team built them does what it should. RIP.
Mark Stringer: That was a tough read, and thanks for sharing Thankfully, my memories of Matt are all positive. I found him brilliant, unique, friendly, unjustifiably helpful, and whilst my own contributions have never warranted any kind of reciprocal admiration, I can at least be happy that (to my knowledge) mst never got angry with me 😃 We shared some times that I’ll hopefully never forget. I was sad when he departed the community, and I’m even more sad to know now that we’ll never share another random beer, whisky, spilled whisky resulting in me buying the most expensive shot of my life, or frank and random heart to heart between two relative strangers RIP Matt
Darren Duncan: Thank you for sharing this remembrance. I feel you wrote at well and appreciate your efforts. I remember having good relations with Matt personally, though our interaction was limited. A majority was online of course. But in particular, I met Matt in person multiple times, starting at OSCON 2005, and we had more than one nice talk in context of the then-brand-new Dbix::Class, given our common interest in database-related projects. I can still picture some of those, such as by the inner OSCON stairwell, outside on the street prior to a talk, in at least one of Matt’s talks. I also recall I accompanied Matt during a pub crawl at YAPC 2012, where I didn’t drink alcohol myself but was there to socialize.
This makes me sad. I had many good times with Matt, and some less than awesome times, but at moments like this, the good times bring a smile to my face. It makes me sad I will no longer be able to look forwardto any more good times.
It had been quite a few years since I last spoke with Matt. I’m saddened to hear of his passing and had hoped we’d cross paths again. He was a complicated individual, and polarizing, but I appreciated his candor even if it was calling me fat 🤣. His contributions to Perl/FOSS helped shape technology for so many people. He’ll be missed.
My first encounter with the Perl community, was connecting online with mst. I was going to be attending YAPC for the first time (Madison 2012), and was anxious about it. Matt was encouraging and welcoming…and when he found me in Madison, yanked me off my feet in the biggest hug I’ve ever had.
Rough around the edges? Absolutely, moreso than most of us. Infuriating, at times? Sure, for some folks–including me, occasionally. But Matt had a huge, huge heart for Perl and the community…I’ll miss him.
Too young to leave, but even in the short time allotted to him he left his mark as few have been able to do. Thank you mst, you made our travels in Perl so much more interesting.
What deeply saddening news. I haven’t interacted with mst in 10+ years, but his identity is unforgettable. We first crossed paths when I was in Lancaster University and also doing Perl work. In a “small world” set of circumstances it just happened that Shadowcat were also based in Lancaster. mst held no reservations about who he met – if you were interested in Perl and passionate, he’d see you as a peer as if we’d known each other for eternity. I was amazed that I, just at the start of my career would be treated so equal by someone who was capable of many magnitudes more. If you listened, there was an absolute fountain of knowledge he’d share at the drop of a hat. Of course, his tone wasn’t to everyone’s taste – to me it was just unique, but I could understand how others might find it difficult. I just found it unabashedly honest and flawed, but with no real malice – it was just who he was, and clearly came from a place of immense dedication to what he saw right. He pushed me early in my open source career, always assuming I was capable of doing things the right way, and never hand holding. But it went further than just tech – I was also joyed when mst just casually wanted to get a drink and openly shared a lot about how he got into programming. Maybe circumstances now explain this a bit more, but I don’t think so – I think he was just a very unfiltered person given the right situation. Years later we briefly crossed paths again in a small question in #postgresql – his only comment to my question was “come on, surely you know the answer to what you’re asking”. I’ll miss you, Matt – it’s a shame our paths won’t cross again. RIP.
Knowing Matt is knowing you cannot summarize him in a single comment. He was a pivotal figure in every sense of the word.
He was as much a mad hatter as he was maddening to work with, and he’ll be missed in ways that can’t even be articulated yet, because Matt was not one to be easily put into words.
Matt was an extraordinary talent: from being a child maths prodigy to a developer, maintainer and advisor on some of the most essential parts of what took the Perl development environment to the modern language it is today (and no, this is not the thread for you to argue with that assessment of Perl, so please don’t).
I owe Matt most of the last twenty years of my career: a couple of chance laments on the state of a codebase on my part led to (in his own inimitable way) some pointers from him to the way forward in Perl. That’s typical Matt – I often suspected that part of his means of determining whether people were worth his time and effort was to drop them crumbs and let them figure things out for themselves. Indeed, I suspect there are a lot of Perl projects out there that are the result of Matt planting some seeds and stepping back…
He was something of a controversial figure in the Perl community – I think some folk didn’t always ‘get’ him, and equally I think sometimes he didn’t necessarily do himself any favours. That said? I considered him a friend, if not that close, and had and will always have a heck of a lot of respect and awe for his talent and ability. His lightning talks at the London Perl Workshop were legendary, usually not being 100% serious, and involving entertainingly mad exploits of bits of Perl syntax and internals that most of his audience were just about following with bemused shakes of the head.
I know he didn’t necessarily grant respect easily: I am humbled to believe that he did like and respect me (and trusted me with the (virtual) keys to some of Shadowcat’s systems). He also (which those who didn’t know him beyond the public somewhat curmudgeonly developer persona would be surprised by) gave me some understanding, sympathetic and (being Matt) direct and practical advice about coping when my parents were ill in 2023, which I was very grateful for.
For showing up at Oslo Perl Mongers events, giving classes and doing the presentations only you could do.
For sharing with me some of your stories – always interesting – always something to learn from.
For teaching me (by showing, not telling) the trick of ending your sentences with “..because,” to help force oneself to be clearer in our communication.
For showing that creativity and craziness can work together productively, hand-in-hand, and create awesome results – if one allows oneself this freedom.
For showing that it’s fine to play and experiment, but that in the end, someone else is going to use these experiments and they deserve too.
For showing that you listened, long after the conversations were forgotten.
For demonstrating that anyone can change for the better, even after the stories have been written and told.
Thank you for everything, Matt, you will surely be missed.
Many great things in my life happened only because I’ve got infected by his energy. It’s sad that he wasn’t given more time, and it’s impressive – and appreciated – what he achieved in the time he was given.
I’ll remember him as the best one-man-rock-band of Perl. A unique and very special figure.
mst! Your name echoes across CPAN and every Perl place. I met you at my first conference, and since then your voice was always loudly distinguishable, heard from far away at every venue. Your talks were different, special, razor-sharp, avant-garde, pedantically tidy, and spiked with grunge humour.
You insisted on better abstractions and called us out, LOUDLY, when we shipped rubbish. Your ‘ES6: Almost an acceptable Perl5?’ trolled and taught; your ‘throw away your code’ mantra keeps us brave enough to refactor.
From DBIx::Class to the Moose metaprotocol, from CPAN mirrors to ‘well volunteered’ drive-bys, the waves you kicked up still power library systems worldwide, including the Koha/Perl stack my team is spreading today.
Your contributions live on: DBIx::Class, Catalyst, Moose MOP, local::lib, Task::Kensho, mstpan, Devel::Declare, B::Hooks, Plack/PSGI evangelism, Shadowcat infrastructure, Reaction UI, SQL::Translator patches, MooseX ecosystem, Devel::REPL, and more!
I considered MST to be a friend. He will be missed greatly. Without his support and advocacy Test2 may never have happened. I did not always feel this way, when we first started interacting on IRC I thought he was an asshole, but our relationship developed to the point where I considered him a friend and treasure for the community.
I have also never met someone who worked so hard to have so much growth as a person. He recognized how he rubbed people the wrong way at times, and made the effort to change and become a better person. The MST he was at the end was different from the person he was at the beginning, because he decided who and how he wanted to be, and made the effort to become that person. More people need that strength, and he was an inspiration.
Matt was not just a brilliant mind but a force of kindness, wit, and unwavering passion. His contributions to Perl, open source, and the tech community at large were monumental, but those who knew him personally will remember something even greater—his generosity, his humor, and the way he made people feel seen.
To his family and closest friends: we cannot fathom the depth of your loss. Please know that the ripples of Matt’s work, his words, and his warmth have touched countless lives across the globe. He built bridges—between code and people, between ideas and reality—and his legacy will endure in every line of Perl, every shared laugh, and every moment he spent lifting others up.
Rest easy, mst. You were one of a kind, and you will be fiercely missed.
If there’s any comfort to be found, it’s in the community that loved him—and the fact that, thanks to him, none of us will ever walk alone.
Only just found out about this sad news. Matt was a force of nature and I really enjoyed his talks at FLOSSUK over the years, along with the post-conference chat in the pub. He will be sorely missed.
Absolutely gutted to hear about Matt (mst). He was a true powerhouse in the Perl world—brilliant, blunt, and endlessly generous with his time. I learned so much from him, directly and indirectly. His guidance shaped a lot of the code—and thinking—that’s still with me today. We lost a giant far too soon. Rest in peace, and thank you!
I’m so sad to learn that. Matt was such a unique character. I remember multiple fun discussions with him.
We had some great time in Orlando together.
Matt was a great speaker, no, an amazing speaker and he would never let his audience neutral after his talk.
I now understand better why I was not able to cross him recently, but Matt really marks me for life.
I want to pay my respects to Matt S. Trout, a person I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times in person, and whose impact on me has been significant.
I, like many others, have had the privilege of being on the receiving end of his passionate and sometimes fiery guidance. I have to admit that his, shall we say, colorful language took some getting used to at first. But it quickly became apparent that his strong opinions were a reflection of his deep commitment to the causes he cared about.
I’ll remember his distinctive style, british, loud, long-haired, kilt wearing, full of wits and stories and the unwavering conviction with which he expressed himself.
Even if his approach sometimes caught me off guard, I came to appreciate the kindness and generosity that lay beneath his tough exterior.
His legacy lives on through the countless people he’s inspired and helped along the way.
I am very sorry to hear about mst’s passing. I have very vivid memories of his always passionate talks, and I appreciate his tireless enthusiasm and engagement. perl -E ‘say q[rest in peace]’
This is profoundly sad news. Matt was a Tcl programmer as well, and I am glad I met him through #tcl on what was then freenode. In recent years, he showed up on Libera.Chat more and more rarely, but I hoped he’d come back. Many people who only knew him online, on IRC networks he helped run, are going to miss mst.
MST kept me abreast of his shenanigans, pets, bourbon, and drama on the IRC. He proofread my code for free. I use so many of the Perl modules he invented. Here’s to you Matt! Cheers mate! 🥃
Wow, this is really sad news. When I attended a YAPC where MST was speaking, I would always make sure to see his talks. He never needed a microphone and his passion was infectious. He may have been over the top at times, but he was also inspiring, welcoming, and kind. MST, you will be missed.
Heartbroken to hear this news. When I first interacted with him online I felt a bit intimidated, but over the years after we’ve met countless times in real life, I came to appreciate his friendliness, passion and humor. He’ll be missed.
My first encounter with Matt was seeking help in the old Freenode #perl for an oddity in Redhat’s perl interacting with a bug in Test-Simple. Brusque to be sure, he was ever focused on finding and fixing the root cause, and put me on the path to managing perls to my own preference. I am grateful to have met him however briefly at the 2019 PTS, and found his passion and brashness was certainly authentic. He had uncountable impact on the Perl communities, for better and worse, but that which I will most remember is how he always pushed for things to get done, if not by him then others who were invested in the problem, because he knew that in open source and in life, problems only get solved when someone puts in the work to fix it properly.
I keep trying to think of things to say about Matt, but he’s been the cause of so many good things in my life I can’t find a way to sum it up. So I’m just going to say I’m never going to forget him, and I’ll always miss him.
I really enjoyed meeting Matt at conferences, listening to his weird & wonderful (and thus very Perlish) talks and chatting with him during the social track. I guess I use some of his code every day. 🙁
It is impossible to calculate the debt that I owe you. Miles and miles of IRC logs (kilometers for you of course) full of crazy ideas and a wide range of emotions. I’ve half a mind to feed them all into an LLM and see what comes out, try to put the ghost back into the machine.
I miss our collaborations, in fact I’d been missing them a lot recently and tried to contact you to reminisce, but you didn’t respond. We had a lot of fun doing Open Source when Open Source was actually fun to do. It’s crazy to think that DBIx::Class and Moose are almost 20 years old now, almost as old as you were back then! It was truly an amazing time, and we were right in the middle of our local @vortex and having a fucking blast!
I regret losing touch, now more than ever. Funny how my moving closer to your timezone meant I was no longer online during your working hours. But life put us on different paths, and sadly those paths will never cross again. If someone told me a week ago that I would be shedding tears for Matt Trout, I would have laughed and thought them insane, but yet here I am.
I would like to think that after all these years of being a BOFH, that you’ve been promoted and moved to HQ! My only hope is that somebody warned them that you were coming.
Such terrible news. Matt was and always will be a massive inspiration. His technical skill is clear to anyone who reads his code but it was only upon meeting him that the wave of enthusiasm hit you like a hammer. We have lost a giant.
Such sad news! I first started messing with perl around 2008 and stumbled into the #perl irc. No matter what hour I posted a question, mst was always there to help. I went to my first yapc in 2014 and ran into mst in person. I had no idea he would be there. It felt like I was meeting a movie star!
Matt and I were not close, and we certainly did not always agree,
but I deeply respected his extraordinary knowledge and ability,
his frequent (often unexpected) grace and kindness,
his fervent passion for Perl and for the Perl community,
and his many pivotal contributions to both.
I did not know Matt personally but interacted with him a number of times on IRC. I learned quickly to have my questions and comments prepared because I could not type (or think) at the Matt speed.
It forced me to think about what I was trying to do and understand my problem better.
I have missed his presence on IRC over the last year or so. Matt was always interesting, always willing to help; but you needed to be willing to learn or at least answer his questions about your problem.
My deepest condolences to his family and everyone who considered him a friend.
Matt made an immense contribution to the Perl world. He was a brilliant mind, and his legacy will live on in the code. I’m sad that his life was cut short.
I’m well aware Matt was not a perfect person by any stretch but goddammit was he alive and lived with great purpose. Not having much occasion to interact with Perl folk lately, despite its community spirit sticking with me for a decade and a half, I was dumbstruck to find out about his passing on fucking Hacker News of all places. This is what I posted there.
—
Jesus fucking Christ. I am so sorry to his friends, family and colleagues at Shadowcat. I don’t know that I or so many other people in and around the Perl community would have the life experiences we had without being “voluntold” to do something to, say, take a small part in making a conference happen, or to submit a talk I wouldn’t have otherwise done.
His oratory and presentation style is inimitable and he truly brought everyone up who worked with him, and even did his best to smooth over difficult personality conflicts on the p5p mailing list. He was instrumental in establishing a Standard of Conduct for contributing to Perl, as well. He was a staunch ally for the many he befriended and worked to bash through obstacles whether it had anything to do with his immediate obligations or no.
[…] He was also the cofounder of Shadowcat Systems with Matt Keating, who posted a touching obituary on the company’s blog, appropriately titled with a phrase from Terry Pratchett: Ripples They Cause in the World. […]
Matt was one of my favourite people in the world. No bullshit, minimal filters, frank opinions, and technical brilliance. At the several LPWs I helped organise and run, I always volunteered to timekeep, and I always chose the room where Matt would be speaking. It guaranteed at least one interesting talk.
He wasn’t always easy to get along with, but that was perhaps one of his least unique traits in a community where strong opinions, passionately expressed, are valued and respected: his more than most.
Matt was chaotic, passionate and generous. He was good for Perl and good for the Perl community. He was outspoken, where or not he was right, always because he cared.
I liked him and I wish I’d been more in contact with him.
He was one of a kind for sure. Referred a few clients to him way back in the day after a particularly insightful conversation outside OSCON in maybe 2004 or 2005?
I left the Perl world around 2009 and so we lost touch over the years. He’s probably already busy debugging the afterlife.
Matt was uncompromising in doing what he thought was right. That made him loud, visible, and seemingly fearless. It also made him the quintessential Swiss Army Chainsaw; he could apply himself to almost anything and cut through bullshit and hard problems, but it was best to keep a safe distance while he did so.
I don’t know what life comes after this, but I hope whoever is there is wearing eye-protection and steel-toed shoes.
60 Responses
This makes me sad. I had many good times with Matt, and some less than awesome times, but at moments like this, the good times bring a smile to my face. It makes me sad I will no longer be able to look forwardto any more good times.
Although Matt and I disagreed on a *lot*, I’m sorry to hear that he has passed away at such a young age. Best wishes to all who loved him.
It had been quite a few years since I last spoke with Matt. I’m saddened to hear of his passing and had hoped we’d cross paths again. He was a complicated individual, and polarizing, but I appreciated his candor even if it was calling me fat 🤣. His contributions to Perl/FOSS helped shape technology for so many people. He’ll be missed.
My first encounter with the Perl community, was connecting online with mst. I was going to be attending YAPC for the first time (Madison 2012), and was anxious about it. Matt was encouraging and welcoming…and when he found me in Madison, yanked me off my feet in the biggest hug I’ve ever had.
Rough around the edges? Absolutely, moreso than most of us. Infuriating, at times? Sure, for some folks–including me, occasionally. But Matt had a huge, huge heart for Perl and the community…I’ll miss him.
Too young to leave, but even in the short time allotted to him he left his mark as few have been able to do. Thank you mst, you made our travels in Perl so much more interesting.
What deeply saddening news. I haven’t interacted with mst in 10+ years, but his identity is unforgettable. We first crossed paths when I was in Lancaster University and also doing Perl work. In a “small world” set of circumstances it just happened that Shadowcat were also based in Lancaster. mst held no reservations about who he met – if you were interested in Perl and passionate, he’d see you as a peer as if we’d known each other for eternity. I was amazed that I, just at the start of my career would be treated so equal by someone who was capable of many magnitudes more. If you listened, there was an absolute fountain of knowledge he’d share at the drop of a hat. Of course, his tone wasn’t to everyone’s taste – to me it was just unique, but I could understand how others might find it difficult. I just found it unabashedly honest and flawed, but with no real malice – it was just who he was, and clearly came from a place of immense dedication to what he saw right. He pushed me early in my open source career, always assuming I was capable of doing things the right way, and never hand holding. But it went further than just tech – I was also joyed when mst just casually wanted to get a drink and openly shared a lot about how he got into programming. Maybe circumstances now explain this a bit more, but I don’t think so – I think he was just a very unfiltered person given the right situation. Years later we briefly crossed paths again in a small question in #postgresql – his only comment to my question was “come on, surely you know the answer to what you’re asking”. I’ll miss you, Matt – it’s a shame our paths won’t cross again. RIP.
He created some good ripples for me that continue to live on. Thank you mst! May your next journey be all that you could hope for and more.
I already missed his energy. Very disappointed we won’t see it again. Thank you for sharing this difficult news.
Knowing Matt is knowing you cannot summarize him in a single comment. He was a pivotal figure in every sense of the word.
He was as much a mad hatter as he was maddening to work with, and he’ll be missed in ways that can’t even be articulated yet, because Matt was not one to be easily put into words.
<3
A loss for sure. So sad. Peace and prayers to his family and friends.
only the good die young – rip Matt
Matt was an extraordinary talent: from being a child maths prodigy to a developer, maintainer and advisor on some of the most essential parts of what took the Perl development environment to the modern language it is today (and no, this is not the thread for you to argue with that assessment of Perl, so please don’t).
I owe Matt most of the last twenty years of my career: a couple of chance laments on the state of a codebase on my part led to (in his own inimitable way) some pointers from him to the way forward in Perl. That’s typical Matt – I often suspected that part of his means of determining whether people were worth his time and effort was to drop them crumbs and let them figure things out for themselves. Indeed, I suspect there are a lot of Perl projects out there that are the result of Matt planting some seeds and stepping back…
He was something of a controversial figure in the Perl community – I think some folk didn’t always ‘get’ him, and equally I think sometimes he didn’t necessarily do himself any favours. That said? I considered him a friend, if not that close, and had and will always have a heck of a lot of respect and awe for his talent and ability. His lightning talks at the London Perl Workshop were legendary, usually not being 100% serious, and involving entertainingly mad exploits of bits of Perl syntax and internals that most of his audience were just about following with bemused shakes of the head.
I know he didn’t necessarily grant respect easily: I am humbled to believe that he did like and respect me (and trusted me with the (virtual) keys to some of Shadowcat’s systems). He also (which those who didn’t know him beyond the public somewhat curmudgeonly developer persona would be surprised by) gave me some understanding, sympathetic and (being Matt) direct and practical advice about coping when my parents were ill in 2023, which I was very grateful for.
The world is a poorer place without him in it.
Thank you Matt, for all the things you did.
For showing up at Oslo Perl Mongers events, giving classes and doing the presentations only you could do.
For sharing with me some of your stories – always interesting – always something to learn from.
For teaching me (by showing, not telling) the trick of ending your sentences with “..because,” to help force oneself to be clearer in our communication.
For showing that creativity and craziness can work together productively, hand-in-hand, and create awesome results – if one allows oneself this freedom.
For showing that it’s fine to play and experiment, but that in the end, someone else is going to use these experiments and they deserve too.
For showing that you listened, long after the conversations were forgotten.
For demonstrating that anyone can change for the better, even after the stories have been written and told.
Thank you for everything, Matt, you will surely be missed.
Sorry to hear this news.
Condolences.
Many great things in my life happened only because I’ve got infected by his energy. It’s sad that he wasn’t given more time, and it’s impressive – and appreciated – what he achieved in the time he was given.
I’ll remember him as the best one-man-rock-band of Perl. A unique and very special figure.
Rest in peace
I’m truly saddened by this news. I only had the chance to meet Matt once, but he left a lasting impression.
Rest in peace, Matt. I learned a lot from you, even though we never met.
No words feel right
Just https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muOJBYcM85g
Goodbye, old friend 😿
No words feel right
Just https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muOJBYcM85g
Goodbye, old friend 😿
mst! Your name echoes across CPAN and every Perl place. I met you at my first conference, and since then your voice was always loudly distinguishable, heard from far away at every venue. Your talks were different, special, razor-sharp, avant-garde, pedantically tidy, and spiked with grunge humour.
You insisted on better abstractions and called us out, LOUDLY, when we shipped rubbish. Your ‘ES6: Almost an acceptable Perl5?’ trolled and taught; your ‘throw away your code’ mantra keeps us brave enough to refactor.
From DBIx::Class to the Moose metaprotocol, from CPAN mirrors to ‘well volunteered’ drive-bys, the waves you kicked up still power library systems worldwide, including the Koha/Perl stack my team is spreading today.
Your contributions live on: DBIx::Class, Catalyst, Moose MOP, local::lib, Task::Kensho, mstpan, Devel::Declare, B::Hooks, Plack/PSGI evangelism, Shadowcat infrastructure, Reaction UI, SQL::Translator patches, MooseX ecosystem, Devel::REPL, and more!
Rest in code and commits, Shadowcat Matt.
I considered MST to be a friend. He will be missed greatly. Without his support and advocacy Test2 may never have happened. I did not always feel this way, when we first started interacting on IRC I thought he was an asshole, but our relationship developed to the point where I considered him a friend and treasure for the community.
I have also never met someone who worked so hard to have so much growth as a person. He recognized how he rubbed people the wrong way at times, and made the effort to change and become a better person. The MST he was at the end was different from the person he was at the beginning, because he decided who and how he wanted to be, and made the effort to become that person. More people need that strength, and he was an inspiration.
A Tribute to Matt S. Trout (mst)
The world feels a little dimmer today.
Matt was not just a brilliant mind but a force of kindness, wit, and unwavering passion. His contributions to Perl, open source, and the tech community at large were monumental, but those who knew him personally will remember something even greater—his generosity, his humor, and the way he made people feel seen.
To his family and closest friends: we cannot fathom the depth of your loss. Please know that the ripples of Matt’s work, his words, and his warmth have touched countless lives across the globe. He built bridges—between code and people, between ideas and reality—and his legacy will endure in every line of Perl, every shared laugh, and every moment he spent lifting others up.
Rest easy, mst. You were one of a kind, and you will be fiercely missed.
If there’s any comfort to be found, it’s in the community that loved him—and the fact that, thanks to him, none of us will ever walk alone.
MST introduced me to Sufficiently Advanced T-Shirts (Technology) in true good humour. He’s an inspiration.
Rest in Peace, Matt 🙁
Only just found out about this sad news. Matt was a force of nature and I really enjoyed his talks at FLOSSUK over the years, along with the post-conference chat in the pub. He will be sorely missed.
Absolutely gutted to hear about Matt (mst). He was a true powerhouse in the Perl world—brilliant, blunt, and endlessly generous with his time. I learned so much from him, directly and indirectly. His guidance shaped a lot of the code—and thinking—that’s still with me today. We lost a giant far too soon. Rest in peace, and thank you!
I’m so sad to learn that. Matt was such a unique character. I remember multiple fun discussions with him.
We had some great time in Orlando together.
Matt was a great speaker, no, an amazing speaker and he would never let his audience neutral after his talk.
I now understand better why I was not able to cross him recently, but Matt really marks me for life.
Such a Hacker!
Love you Matt!
Everyone remembers their first interaction with mst. He was a true legend who is gone too soon.
I want to pay my respects to Matt S. Trout, a person I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times in person, and whose impact on me has been significant.
I, like many others, have had the privilege of being on the receiving end of his passionate and sometimes fiery guidance. I have to admit that his, shall we say, colorful language took some getting used to at first. But it quickly became apparent that his strong opinions were a reflection of his deep commitment to the causes he cared about.
I’ll remember his distinctive style, british, loud, long-haired, kilt wearing, full of wits and stories and the unwavering conviction with which he expressed himself.
Even if his approach sometimes caught me off guard, I came to appreciate the kindness and generosity that lay beneath his tough exterior.
His legacy lives on through the countless people he’s inspired and helped along the way.
I’m sorry to hear this news, my condolences to the family. Mst was a unique indivdual, and he definitely had an impact on Perl and the Perl community.
I am very sorry to hear about mst’s passing. I have very vivid memories of his always passionate talks, and I appreciate his tireless enthusiasm and engagement. perl -E ‘say q[rest in peace]’
Very sad to learn of him passing on way too early.
He struck me several times as a very passionate, driven, and intelligent person.
My sincere condolences.
Wishing strength and courage to the family, friends, and colleagues.
This is profoundly sad news. Matt was a Tcl programmer as well, and I am glad I met him through #tcl on what was then freenode. In recent years, he showed up on Libera.Chat more and more rarely, but I hoped he’d come back. Many people who only knew him online, on IRC networks he helped run, are going to miss mst.
Rest in peace, friend.
MST kept me abreast of his shenanigans, pets, bourbon, and drama on the IRC. He proofread my code for free. I use so many of the Perl modules he invented. Here’s to you Matt! Cheers mate! 🥃
Wow, this is really sad news. When I attended a YAPC where MST was speaking, I would always make sure to see his talks. He never needed a microphone and his passion was infectious. He may have been over the top at times, but he was also inspiring, welcoming, and kind. MST, you will be missed.
I learned quite a bit from MST when he would help with questions on IRC. Rest in Peace
Heartbroken to hear this news. When I first interacted with him online I felt a bit intimidated, but over the years after we’ve met countless times in real life, I came to appreciate his friendliness, passion and humor. He’ll be missed.
RIP 💔
My first encounter with Matt was seeking help in the old Freenode #perl for an oddity in Redhat’s perl interacting with a bug in Test-Simple. Brusque to be sure, he was ever focused on finding and fixing the root cause, and put me on the path to managing perls to my own preference. I am grateful to have met him however briefly at the 2019 PTS, and found his passion and brashness was certainly authentic. He had uncountable impact on the Perl communities, for better and worse, but that which I will most remember is how he always pushed for things to get done, if not by him then others who were invested in the problem, because he knew that in open source and in life, problems only get solved when someone puts in the work to fix it properly.
I’m heartbroken to hear the news.
I learned so much from mst through his code and his talks. He inspired countless people and challenged ideas.
Rest well, mst.
I keep trying to think of things to say about Matt, but he’s been the cause of so many good things in my life I can’t find a way to sum it up. So I’m just going to say I’m never going to forget him, and I’ll always miss him.
So many things we still wanted to build together. You will be dearly missed. Rest in peace, old friend.
I really enjoyed meeting Matt at conferences, listening to his weird & wonderful (and thus very Perlish) talks and chatting with him during the social track. I guess I use some of his code every day. 🙁
Complicated feelings for a complicated man.
It is impossible to calculate the debt that I owe you. Miles and miles of IRC logs (kilometers for you of course) full of crazy ideas and a wide range of emotions. I’ve half a mind to feed them all into an LLM and see what comes out, try to put the ghost back into the machine.
I miss our collaborations, in fact I’d been missing them a lot recently and tried to contact you to reminisce, but you didn’t respond. We had a lot of fun doing Open Source when Open Source was actually fun to do. It’s crazy to think that DBIx::Class and Moose are almost 20 years old now, almost as old as you were back then! It was truly an amazing time, and we were right in the middle of our local @vortex and having a fucking blast!
I regret losing touch, now more than ever. Funny how my moving closer to your timezone meant I was no longer online during your working hours. But life put us on different paths, and sadly those paths will never cross again. If someone told me a week ago that I would be shedding tears for Matt Trout, I would have laughed and thought them insane, but yet here I am.
I would like to think that after all these years of being a BOFH, that you’ve been promoted and moved to HQ! My only hope is that somebody warned them that you were coming.
Goodbye my friend, you will be deeply missed.
Such terrible news. Matt was and always will be a massive inspiration. His technical skill is clear to anyone who reads his code but it was only upon meeting him that the wave of enthusiasm hit you like a hammer. We have lost a giant.
Such sad news! I first started messing with perl around 2008 and stumbled into the #perl irc. No matter what hour I posted a question, mst was always there to help. I went to my first yapc in 2014 and ran into mst in person. I had no idea he would be there. It felt like I was meeting a movie star!
Dammit dammit dammit. We used to have a lot fun arguing (and agreeing) over IRC.
Goodbye, mst.
gloin
Thank you for all the time you spent providing Perl help and advice to countless strangers over the years.
Matt and I were not close, and we certainly did not always agree,
but I deeply respected his extraordinary knowledge and ability,
his frequent (often unexpected) grace and kindness,
his fervent passion for Perl and for the Perl community,
and his many pivotal contributions to both.
I’m deeply saddened by his passing.
I did not know Matt personally but interacted with him a number of times on IRC. I learned quickly to have my questions and comments prepared because I could not type (or think) at the Matt speed.
It forced me to think about what I was trying to do and understand my problem better.
I have missed his presence on IRC over the last year or so. Matt was always interesting, always willing to help; but you needed to be willing to learn or at least answer his questions about your problem.
My deepest condolences to his family and everyone who considered him a friend.
Matt made an immense contribution to the Perl world. He was a brilliant mind, and his legacy will live on in the code. I’m sad that his life was cut short.
I’m well aware Matt was not a perfect person by any stretch but goddammit was he alive and lived with great purpose. Not having much occasion to interact with Perl folk lately, despite its community spirit sticking with me for a decade and a half, I was dumbstruck to find out about his passing on fucking Hacker News of all places. This is what I posted there.
—
Jesus fucking Christ. I am so sorry to his friends, family and colleagues at Shadowcat. I don’t know that I or so many other people in and around the Perl community would have the life experiences we had without being “voluntold” to do something to, say, take a small part in making a conference happen, or to submit a talk I wouldn’t have otherwise done.
His oratory and presentation style is inimitable and he truly brought everyone up who worked with him, and even did his best to smooth over difficult personality conflicts on the p5p mailing list. He was instrumental in establishing a Standard of Conduct for contributing to Perl, as well. He was a staunch ally for the many he befriended and worked to bash through obstacles whether it had anything to do with his immediate obligations or no.
Fucking hell man. This hurts. Love you Matt.
This is heartbreaking to read.
I’ll never forget the first words mst ever said to me in person, “You’re Justin? Fuck you!”
I still wear that as a badge of honour.
RIP mst. The world is worse off without you in it.
[…] He was also the cofounder of Shadowcat Systems with Matt Keating, who posted a touching obituary on the company’s blog, appropriately titled with a phrase from Terry Pratchett: Ripples They Cause in the World. […]
Dammit.
Matt was one of my favourite people in the world. No bullshit, minimal filters, frank opinions, and technical brilliance. At the several LPWs I helped organise and run, I always volunteered to timekeep, and I always chose the room where Matt would be speaking. It guaranteed at least one interesting talk.
He wasn’t always easy to get along with, but that was perhaps one of his least unique traits in a community where strong opinions, passionately expressed, are valued and respected: his more than most.
Wherever he is, there had better be coffee.
Matt was chaotic, passionate and generous. He was good for Perl and good for the Perl community. He was outspoken, where or not he was right, always because he cared.
I liked him and I wish I’d been more in contact with him.
He was one of a kind for sure. Referred a few clients to him way back in the day after a particularly insightful conversation outside OSCON in maybe 2004 or 2005?
I left the Perl world around 2009 and so we lost touch over the years. He’s probably already busy debugging the afterlife.
Well, shit.
Matt was uncompromising in doing what he thought was right. That made him loud, visible, and seemingly fearless. It also made him the quintessential Swiss Army Chainsaw; he could apply himself to almost anything and cut through bullshit and hard problems, but it was best to keep a safe distance while he did so.
I don’t know what life comes after this, but I hope whoever is there is wearing eye-protection and steel-toed shoes.
I’ll miss you, Matt. ❤️