I technically started ARENA yesterday (11/01/2026), but that was just the project setup1.

Today, I reviewed the planner and appreciated the full depth and scale of the ARENA program and how much I would have to work each day to complete it in a reasonable timeframe2.

And then I reviewed 0.0, or Prerequisites.

Before going further, I think it’s probably worth explaining a bit of my background, especially with regard to mathematics. I graduated high school with a cumulative 1.667 (D+) GPA3. I unfortunately have what I refer to as “weapons-grade” AuDHD4, which went undiagnosed until I was 36 and untreated until I was 44. It was essentially impossible for me to focus or effectively prioritize work. I failed most of my classes throughout middle and high school, and I think I was graduated largely so they wouldn’t have to figure out something else to do with me. This was not conducive to a meaningful mathematical education 🙃

From the time I was a child, I wanted to be a scientist and to work with computers. But I thought I was stupid, and so I ruled those possibilities out until I was well into adulthood.

The US Navy prized my ASVAB score over my high school transcript, and so I enlisted and entered into the nuclear power training pipeline. My service isn’t terribly relevant except for that it’s how I managed to go back to college and graduate, at 31, with a degree in Computer Science, and why I am now working as a contractor for the Department of Veterans Affairs, trying to improve access to care and benefits for other veterans.

But my mathematical skills never really developed. I struggled to pass Calculus, and I graduated having felt like I just scraped by.

In August of 2025, I started using MathAcademy. I started with integrated math and am now roughly at the point where I was when I graduated college - linear algebra, differential and integral calculus, and probability and statistics.

So this is a long way of saying that I’m approaching the prerequisites for ARENA with some caution.

After some thought, I’ve decided to spend this week (11/02-11/06) focusing on some conceptual and programming prerequisites:

I’ve also added the rest of the material where I feel weak or underdeveloped (which is a lot) as work to do alongside ARENA where most appropriate.

First up, I have some videos to watch 🙂

  1. And then I ended up having to go to the emergency room 🫠 Apologies to anyone working in a hiring capability that I just infohazarded. ↩

  2. Several hours, around 8/day to complete it within five weeks. ↩

  3. That’s actually lower than the 2.0 (C) GPA the school system says it requires now, but this was 27 years ago and perhaps things have changed (and apologies again for infohazarding you by implying my current age - I’ve just turned 46). ↩

  4. Infohazards, in my blog posts? They’re more likely than you’d think. ↩