Recurse-Center

⇢ 
Tech
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Recurse Center

Source: https://www.recurse.com/

The retreat where curious programmers recharge and grow

I’ve founded out about Recurse Center, formerly known as Hacker School, from Julia Evan’s blog.

Recurse Center is a independent, community-driven learning and software development retreat located in New York City, United States. Recurse Center focuses on providing a free and open learning environment for programmers, aiming to create a platform where they can explore, develop, and interact with each other. You will spnd six or 12 weeks programming at the edge of your abilities alongside motivated peers - at no cost to you.

Recurse Center is not a traditional school but a self-directives learning community:

  • Work at the edge of your abilities means being ambitious about what you can achieve and also honest about your capacity, choosing work that challenges you but isn’t so far beyond your current abilities that it’s discouraging.
  • Build your volitional muscles means growing your ability to make decisions about your work and learning based your own curiosity and joy, rather than external pressures and fears.
  • Learn generously.

Recurse Center does not have any prerequisites and welcomes programmers of all skill levels. Their learning program doesn’t involve teachers, lectures, or predefined curriculum. Instead, members actively build and manage their learning journey based on their interests and personal goals.

In addition to individual learning, Recurse Center organizes extended activities and community events such as discussions, internships, and group meetings. These initiatives help foster social connections and expand the network of programmers within the community.

Recurse Center has become a sought-after destination for individuals looking to enhance their programming skills, cultivate creativity, and tackle new challenges in the field of technology.

One more thing, Recurse Center has a small set of lightweight social rules that make more explicit certain social norms that are normally implicit. And I found these rules are not only applicable at Recurse Center but should also be applied to life and corporate culture. People may unintentionally be a jerk somewhat, read through the following and ask yourself.

  • No feigning surprise: You shouldn’t act surprised when people say they don’t know something. This applies to both technical things (“What?! I can’t believe you don’t know what the stack is!”) and non-technical things (“You don’t know who RMS is?!”).
  • No subtle -isms: Our last social rule bans subtle racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other kinds of bias. Subtle -isms are small things that make others feel unwelcome, things that we all sometimes do by mistake.
  • No well-actuallys: A well-actually happens when someone says something that’s almost - but not entirely - correct, and you say, “well, actually…” and then give a minor correction. This can be very disruptive when the correction has no bearing on the crux of the conversation.
  • No back-seat driving: If you overhear, or read on Zulip, people working through a problem, you shouldn’t give advice unless you’re actively participating in the conversation.

To learn more about it I recommend the user’s manual.

Final words, that I really want to create one Recurse Center for Vietnamese, we really need this.