My new routine:
- Get up whenever (9 am, 10 am, noon, 1 pm)
- Start coding
- Eat periodically
- Test code
- Research specialized mathematics
- Write notes, largely mathematical and/or statistical
- Do other non-technical business stuff
- Keep coding
- Go to bed whenever (midnight, 1 am, 2 am, 4 am!)
A few realizations:
- Coding seldom feels like work. I like/love it!
- No one I know understands what I’m working on
- Generalized risk-model portfolio optimization
- Concurrent multi-risk model optimization
- Convex and non-convex optimization
- The rare person who might understand likely works for the competition
- Math is fucking cool!
- My health is important. I must exercise and eat right to fulfill my life goals.
In addition to kick-ass software development, I have adopted a fitness and “diet” lifestyle with help from my personal trainer and my wife. For April I will be working out approximately 6 hours/week. My current break-even (basal+) metabolic rate with 4 hours/week strength training is about 2400 kCal/day. Under the new regime, I should lose 4-5 pounds of mostly fat in April. Then I will go back to a build and bulk phase were my weight stays constant, but my muscle/fat ratio increases.
My body-fat-percentage goal is about 14-15%. My max bench press is currently 210 pounds, but I’d really like to hit 225-250. I also wish to maintain symmetry… I want my other keep my other strength progressions roughly proportional to my bench press progress.
4 to 7 hours per week of fitness training is my goal. I find most work outs somewhat unpleasant, but not all. However, I like the results. The hardest part of my new lifestyle is the workouts. The second hardest part is the “diet”… six balanced meals a day. Luckily, my work (a new career in financial software) is mostly joyful.
This is far better than 50+ hours a week in unsatisfying work in my previous career. All in all the change is wonderful, so far.
Balhiser.com 