Ben is joined by Matt Trask to discuss his path in to tech, why community matters more than code, personal finance, cycling, and Star Wars.

Matt is a Senior Software Architect, Podcaster, API aficionado, and Cycling addict.

Links - 

• Civ5
• RollerCoaster Tycoon
• Listen Money Matters podcast
• Mad Fientist
• The Soul of America by Jon Meacham
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Transcript -
Ben:
Hey, welcome to this episode of the More Than Code podcast. I'm really excited to have my good friend and co-host of the PHP Town Hall podcast with me today, Matthew Trask. How's it going, Matt?

Matt:
Hey, I'm good. How are you doing?

Ben:
Good, man. You are getting ready for Christmas. Is there Christmas music blaring?

Matt:
I mean, I guess because it's 2020, I'm having the hardest time getting into the whole Christmas spirit. I remember last year we went to... There's a band, JD McPherson. They did a whole Christmas bluesy rock concert. It was just perfect. I mean, there's nothing this year. I'm struggling to be in Christmas mood.

Ben:
Wow, that's pretty sad, because usually, Labor Day rolls around and you start the Christmas music.

Matt:
I started July this year, because it's 2020. The rules don't matter. But even going out to Target just is hard. Yeah, it's 2020. I'm sure once Christmas gets here, it will be cool. But even Christmas music can't bring me to the mood.

Ben:
Man, all right. So, tell us a bit about yourself for those who don't know you. Where did you grow up?

Matt:
Yeah. So, I grew up in Atlanta and I call Atlanta home, but I was actually born in Germany in a little town called Fulda. Back when I was born, there's East and West Germany. So, Fulda was in the west side. It's an American military base. Some dude... Back when I was working in a restaurant, I had that city on my name tag or whatever. He told me about there's a mountain range that runs North to South in Germany. The South of Fulda is called the Fulda Gap. Had anything happened, that was like the place tanks from either side would have rushed through. So, we're on a pretty, busy popular army base for the first couple years of my life. And then I jumped around at Kentucky, Atlanta. Now, I'm in Nashville, but I call Atlanta home for all intents and purposes.

Ben:
Nice. What brought you to Nashville?

Matt:
Well, I mean, a company by Jacques Woodcock, who's old, old, old friend of PHP Town Hall and old PHP community member. I was working at a startup with him living in Atlanta, working remotely back about four or five years ago. And then when that startup failed, he did his best to find all five of us jobs. It just so happened that the place that wanted to hire me was in Nashville. They needed me to move to Nashville. I really didn't have anything going on. I don't have a family or anything like that. So, I packed up, moved up here. It's been that way now for five-ish years.

Ben:
Do you plan to stay in Nashville?

Matt:
That's a conversation my girlfriend, Kieran and I have almost maybe once a month or so. We don't really know. My family's in Atlanta and South Carolina, my immediate family. Whereas her family is mostly on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. So, nothing's really tying us in Nashville. Her job is here, but she's also been doing it remotely for the last 8, 9, 10 months, how long it's been and has run into no problems whatsoever. So, we've thrown out moving to Minneapolis and Twin Cities. That puts us within a twoish-hour car ride to her family. Moving back to Atlanta, which puts us closer to my family.

Ben:
It's still a two-hour car ride.

Matt:
Do what?

Ben:
Still a two-hour car ride.

Matt:
I mean, yeah, it is. That's perfect. I'm just close enough that I can see my family if I wanted to, but it is such a pain to drive in Atlanta that, yeah, it's a perfect barrier to that. So, I mean, we thought about Atlanta, because what she does from work, there's a lot of opportunities out there too. So, we don't know. We're here until at least August of 2021. So, we'll have to make a decision at some point.

Ben:
So, I'm interrupting you from hitting your mileage goal. Tell us what the goal is and how your progress.

Matt:
I mean, not really interrupting me. I didn't start and then stop or anything, but my mileage goal this year was 2,500 miles cycling. I decided that if I reach that goal, the possibility of getting a new bike can be realized. I don't need any bike, but my bike got 6,000 miles on it. It's a good bike, but it'd be nice to have a bike just to hop on and ride around and then want to do deal the whole shoes, gadgets, that kind of thing. I'm sitting at 2,314 miles. We figured out that if I do 14 miles a day through the end of the year, I'll hit the goal. So, it's the Friday before Christmas, not a lot going on, quiet. So, I figured I would hop on and do it now, instead later tonight.

Ben:
Good plan. Are you more of the road biker? Do you ride at home, any of that?

Matt:
So, I mean, at home, I have that smart trainer. I can do a program called Swift, which is it's like a virtual reality world that with the trainer on Bluetooth, it acts like I'm riding on the road. But during the summer and when it's not 38 degrees outside, I'm usually out on the road somewhere. Mountain bike scares me. I know, Eric Barnes and some other people do mountain biking and it's super cool, but I'm afraid that one jump and I would break my neck or something. I don't really like to take a risk just getting hit by a car versus making a bad jump. Actually, getting hit by a car is way more likely to happen, but I also figured if I get hit by a car, an ambulance can get to me really fast. I don't know that works out logically. But in my head, it makes perfect sense.

Ben:
I was like the car might hurt a little more too.

Matt:
Yeah, probably. Yeah. There's a thing in Nevada, some dude was driving a truck. He was high on meth. He ran into a group of cyclists and killed eight of them and injured another five. I was just like, "Well, that could totally happen." Yeah. I mean, Nashville is cool in that we have a ton of greenways that are very loosely connected. So, I have a little bit of road to ride on and then I can hop on a greenway. And then barring someone is just being really dumb and getting their car onto the greenway, which does happen like maintenance and things like that. But barring someone, just being dumb and driving their car on the greenway, I can be remotely safe.

Ben:
Good plan. Alright, so tell us a bit. What got you into tech?

Matt:
Man, I got into tech because I needed health insurance. I'm just going to be super honest. I have a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia. I've had it since I was born. In order to stay alive, I have to take steroids daily. So, before I was doing tech, I was trying to make it as a musician. I went to music school. I was teaching guitar lessons at a few different places in Atlanta. I was bartending on th...