Thank you for creating Recurse! I had an incredible experience at RC in 2019. I still have friends from my batch.
I deeply wish I had time to do it again.
Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
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Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#102I like the definition of social rules [0]. I also wonder whether the roof rule was written preemptively or retrospectively -- I hope the former. I have my own thanks to give to HN. It's connected me to interesting people, online and IRL. It's led to some very strong friendships. It's led me to multiple job opportunities, and usually the better ones. It's changing of course, but I've had a great time in this community…
I'm surprised by the "you are not allowed to be surprised, ever" rule. It puts me off of recurse entirely. I shouldn't even need to explain why as it should be self-evident that policing/banning a completely natural and sometimes highly beneficial emotion/reaction is beyond problematic. It seems like an XY problem - they implemented it to solve a genuine problem, without understanding the problem. Like, the canonical…
“No surprises” is an effective shorthand for “manage expectations”
Folks who don’t understand that are either not hired or don’t last long. Pedants won’t get past the phone screen.
Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did you connect with people from hn and made irl friendships with them?
A few times I've contacted people who posted an interesting Show HN and it often led to interesting conversations. I've also found multiple roles through "Who's Hiring" threads over the years, and those all became irl.
I see, that is something I have always held off myself from doing. Glad to hear that people reply!
Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#104I really like this idea, but I’m not clear how the logistics work out. It’s “free” but 1.5 - 3 months in NYC is not cheap and would mean carrying double rent for that period of time on top of living expenses. Is there financial assistance or are participants expected to cover all of their own costs? If so doesn’t that make this only accessible to those quite well off already? That is, those who can afford to take off…
when I did my batch, almost everyone I met was scrappy. it was tinkerers, artists, hacker types, drawn by curiosity and the RC community. most had been laid off, were making a career change, or simply weirdos not on the usual ladder.
I got a cheap bedroom sublet through a former recurser and sublet my own place back home.
not your comment, but some replies below make it sound like RC would be otherwise, full of rich kids or "retreat" types maybe, but it's the opposite.
leaving work, paying NYC rent, yes it's all expensive but places like RC that create free spaces like this are part of the solution
Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#105I like the definition of social rules [0]. I also wonder whether the roof rule was written preemptively or retrospectively -- I hope the former. I have my own thanks to give to HN. It's connected me to interesting people, online and IRL. It's led to some very strong friendships. It's led me to multiple job opportunities, and usually the better ones. It's changing of course, but I've had a great time in this community…
I love the "no backseat driving" rule. That kind of behaviour is what caused me to stop engaging with StackOverflow.
Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#106This sentence "And 15 years on I still wake up every day excited to keep working on it." stuck with me. Wow, that is true passion on what you do.
Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#107I had an amazing time at RC more than a decade ago. It had a massive impact on my life, and I'm very grateful for the experience. I always like running into RCers in the most random places, even after all this time. Congrats Nick, Sonali, Dave and everyone else! Would definitely recommend you go if you get a chance :)
Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#108I wish something like Recurse existed in Cupertino, I've always admired the program. Congrats on this milestone, most HN alumni don't make it past a decade.
It's very far from the same thing, but there's Hacker Dojo in Mountain View if you're looking for people irl to meet up with.
I’ll check it out!
Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#109I attended a Recurse Center batch, and while I understand that others had amazing experiences, mine was quite bland. I can't blame anyone but myself for this. Most of the other attendees were intelligent or highly self-motivated, or both. Many people seemed to connect instantly, forming small work groups, sharing project ideas, and even going out for lunch or dinner together. They were constantly talking about how aw…
I loved my time at recurse and also had some similar experiences to you. There were cliques and social dynamics that I didn’t fully understand or didn’t want to be involved in, but that’s genuinely normal for me. I’ll go out on a limb and say that’s normal for many people in the tech industry. There were also people genuinely interested in making connections and drawing others into groups, and I haven’t experienced that in other tech spaces.
New York was overwhelming and different than my usual life, and sometimes that felt amazing and sometimes it was hard. Knowing that it was temporary let me enjoy the good parts and not worry too much about the hard parts.
I hate zulip and find it incredibly unintuitive. It’s a real shame to me that it’s the best way to engage with the recurse community, because once my batch was over I haven’t been as involved.
A lot of the program is what you make of it- it’s self directed, and you won’t magically become a different person just by walking through the doors. I do really appreciate all the work that the recurse team puts into setting people up for success, both through the interview process and the light structure they provide.
Re: Thanks HN for 15 years of support and helping me find my life's work
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I do think you're simply reading their rule in a way that's not intended by them. I share a similar apprehension, although it's hard to put into words exactly. Across the entire document, really. Like, it's clearly well intended, and not too bad of a match for things I would advocate myself. But at the same time it's suggestive of an impossibly high standard, and I have trauma from seeing "standards that can be int…
I understand the apprehension, and I agree that rules should be as clear as possible and not be applied inconsistently. Hoewever, I take exception to the suggestion that the mere existence of a rule means that it will be applied wrong. There is a difference between saying "I worry that these rules are too open for interpretation" and "these rules only pretend to be sensible and fair, they are clearly intended as weap…
> Hoewever, I take exception to the suggestion that the mere existence of a rule means that it will be applied wrong.
I won't speak for nchmy, but I didn't intend to suggest that.