Introduction

Hello, I’m Ryan Oatmeal and this is my first post on my new blog!

A Few Facts About Me

• At the time of me writing this, which is around December 13th, 2025, I’m 31 years old.
• For the past three years, I was a software developer at a major non-profit organization in the United States which is responsible for a lot of basic infrastructure in the country. I had the opportunity to work on some complicated and sometimes interesting systems with a lot of intelligent people.
• For several years before I got that job, I was focused on trying to obtain an academic career as a mathematician. I made it into a phd program before I realized just how crippling my gender dysphoria was in my life and so I left to make money and fund my transition.
• I’m now at a point where I have my “transition” nest egg saved up (around $30k which should get me most of the way there with a run of the mill US health insurance plan).
• I quit my job last month and picked up a new job as a mail carrier where I don’t need to think so hard throughout the day. Now I can focus again on mathematics and hopefully work my way back into a phd program.

What’s Next

I’d like to share my journey as I begin this new chapter in my life.

I intend to write about the following in my upcoming posts:

• A look into my finances and how they line up with my goals.
• A walk through of my personal tech stack that I use in my day to day life.
• Some cross sections of my notes as I read through Francis Borceux’s three volumes titled “Handbook of Categorical Algebra”. I’m trying to build a new mathematical foundation for myself [1] and I want it to be as topos theoretic as I can stomach.

Footnotes

1. Emphasis on myself, I have no intentions of figuring out a foundation that isn’t well established by the math community.