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Hacker School is now the Recurse Center

recurse.com

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Re: Hacker School is now the Recurse Center

#101

Post by stared »

While the word "school" makes me shiver, "hacker" exactly cancels it. And I read it as "school, made by/for hackers". So pretty much self-explanatory; at least for potential applicants and mentors.

(Speaking as a foreigner) I do understand that immigration office will be suspicious (as it sounds for them as a "terrorist camp"), but well, it can be done on tourist visa AND its official name can different (e.g. "programmer school"... or even "recurse center").

"Recurse center" sounds totally generic and vague ("curse center"? "recluse center"? is it some sort of holidays or rehab?).

Of course, everything can be rebranded, but I wouldn't call an instant rapport "the biggest mistake".

Re: Hacker School is now the Recurse Center

#102

Post by agarden »

nicholasjbs wrote: post #71
dmazin wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the reply! I agree that meaningless phrases are good for brands, and much better than ones with baggage (as you say, in that regard Hacker School can't get much worse). And I believe that you will be able to properly add meaning to "Recurse Center." My point with my "umph" comment was that "School" refers to an object/category, while "Center" refers to a blank entity, it's kind of a dead word (it also h…

Yes, we considered a few others. For instance, we thought about "retreat" but decided against it because it felt too limited, and we considered "institute" but worried it would come off as pretentious. Center is definitely kind of a "dead" word, but we'd rather err on the side of too little meaning rather than too much given our past mistakes :) (We also like the acronym "RC" more than "RR" or "RI.") Thanks for the t…

I first saw Hacker School name-dropped on a blog. It was such an intriguing name I Googled it and read up. Sounds fantastic, like something I would really like to do some day. Seeing a reference to Recurse Center on a blog would not have the same effect on me. It would have gone uninvestigated.

"Center" sounds officious, beauracratic, stuffy, and boring to my ears. Exactly the kind of place I would like to avoid and would not bother to investigate. I second "Institute" as being better; it summons to mind the Instute for Advanced Study and other think-tank, idea-cauldron kind of places.

Re: Hacker School is now the Recurse Center

#103

Post by rajacombinator »

dmazin wrote: post #16

I love Hacker School (the entity, not the name) but Recurse Center is a strange choice. "Recurse" does not bring to mind the word "recursion" by itself, and while "School" is a meaningful word, "Center" isn't. It has no umph as a phrase. The reason for the change is completely sound, but the new name is just a little strange to me.

I agree. As my purely 2c on the new name choice, the first thing that comes to mind is "Rehab Center".

Re: Hacker School is now the Recurse Center

#104

Post by briandear »

nicholasjbs wrote: post #65
briandear wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, Hacker School is vocational and requires an "M" visa. But, Hacker School isn't a Student and Exchange Visitor Program certified school. So they can't sponsor visas. Which would explain exactly why denials would be happening. The purpose of the stay is "study" but the visa type is "tourist." That's the reason for rejections. It isn't the school name that creates the problem, it's the mismatched purpose of tr…

"Actually, Hacker School is vocational and requires an "M" visa." This is not true. See my response elsewhere on HN ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9265755 ), but the tl;dr is: We've confirmed with immigration lawyers that it's perfectly legitimate for people to come on visitor visas. A couple of people have had their visa requests denied (not because of anything specific to us but because of concerns that the…

My question is why would they even mention "hacker?"

Re: Hacker School is now the Recurse Center

#105

Post by briandear »

throwaway344 wrote: post #67
briandear wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skin color has nothing to do with visa rejections. There are thousands of visas issued each day in all sorts of "dark skinned" countries. The issue is if the person is likely to overstay their visa. Do they have a job? A family? A bank account? Own property? Have other compelling reasons to return to their home country. If they are young, unemployed and single without many other resources; a denial is likely, for obv…

I think the GP is saying that they wonder if an equivalent Northern European with identical stats would have been rejected. They're not disputing the fact that some white people get denied, but rather that they get denied less than other groups.

That's a very hard allegation to prove. For example, nearly 100% of Indian visa applicants are brown skinned. Nearly 100% of African applicants have dark skin. The skin color isn't the reason for denials, it's the country of origin, the propensity for people of those countries to overstay along with the personal resources of the applicant. A visa applicant from Bangladesh is going to be denied much more frequently than a visa applicant from Serbia. Not because Serbians are lighter skinned, but because statistically, Bangladeshis are more likely to overstay. There's not much personal appearance bias in the consular equations. Also, visa approvals and denials are reviewed by a supervisor -- the State Department is among the most excessively politically correct agencies around. They go out of their way to ensure fairness. I don't agree with all of their decisions of course, but race has minimal if any influence.

If you want to see some "proof" of this, look at the rate of visa denials for Albania (mostly white skinned people) -- 42% denied. Compared to Zimbabwe with only a 22% denial.

The "white skins get denied less because of racism" meme is not based on any sort of data, facts or anything resembling a statistically valid statement. It's just typical nonsense.

http://www.languageinternational.com/high-risk-countries

Re: Hacker School is now the Recurse Center

#106

Post by throwaway344 »

briandear wrote: post #105
throwaway344 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the GP is saying that they wonder if an equivalent Northern European with identical stats would have been rejected. They're not disputing the fact that some white people get denied, but rather that they get denied less than other groups.

That's a very hard allegation to prove. For example, nearly 100% of Indian visa applicants are brown skinned. Nearly 100% of African applicants have dark skin. The skin color isn't the reason for denials, it's the country of origin, the propensity for people of those countries to overstay along with the personal resources of the applicant. A visa applicant from Bangladesh is going to be denied much more frequently th…

Yeah, I was just trying to communicate the parent's argument. I appreciate your introduction of actual numbers.
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