This is my first official foray into the world of blog (I guess now referred to as the "blogosphere"). This is not my first writing effort, but it is my first time trying to write something in this kind of format. What I'll do today is to talk about myself a bit. I am old: 45 years old!, unemployed, and a complete noob to the world of code. I am also a Ph.D. in mathematics (2019-grad). I have had an unusual journey to this point and will try and flush out some of the details as I go along.
So why does a mathematician at age 45 decide to learn to code? First off, I should emphasize that I am very new to coding. Outside of using Latex to markup my mathematics, I never really wrote any code before. The only courses I ever really used a computer as anything but a mailbox or toy (other than the aforementioned latexing) would of been roughly 20+ years ago when I was still a naive undergraduate. Okay, so technically that is not completely accurate: I did use excel spreadsheets for such things as grade storage etc, along with the way and would scour the internet for papers (so I can Google!). Other than that, I am a noob. Which is pretty embarrassing. The image some people have of mathematicians as computing geniuses writing code to solve deep problems and saving the world is not accurate. Certainly, amongst the applied areas, coding and modeling is an important tool (or I think it is: having never been an applied person, I shouldn't speak for them) but most theoreticians don't think highly of computation. A view I have lived to regret. So having admitted I am old and have no coding experience, do I choose now to start this journey? Certainly, as a Ph.D. in mathematics, I have loads of career options and it seems to be an odd choice, but maybe I am just doing this for fun? I have found I enjoy coding but that is not the reason I started. The real reason I started is that the premise is wrong: a Ph.D. in mathematics does not lead to "loads of career options". The truth is my resume is a disappointment and I am at one of the points in one's life where you need to make a change, and, seeing few other choices, decided that coding was the one that made the most sense. I think this is enough for today. If anyone is reading this, I would appreciate your feedback. I can't say I expect anyone will actually read this, but you never know. I am going to make an effort to write more blogs and maybe try to be a bit more premeditated about it in the future: this was written completely off the cuff (hence the highly informal nature). Anyhow, thank you.

Brian Ketelboeter