Blog
What is the Recurse Center?
TL;DR - I spent 3 months programming at the Recurse Center in New York. I really loved my time there and think it's a special, possibly even unique place for a number of reasons.
Last year I spent 3 months programming at the Recurse Center. The quickest way to describe the Recurse Centre is that it is an organisation that hosts educational retreats for programmers in New York City. That's usually my go-to line when people ask me what I was up to in New York last year. However, I always experience a slight twinge of frustration when I say that. Its hard to concisely describe RC, and in reality I've found it to be a lot more than that.
RC describes itself as an "unusual experiment". It certainly contrasts starkly with most other educational organisations. A big part of what makes RC different is that it's a largely self-directed educational experience. There's no mandatory syllabus and there are no exams. You choose your own path and you walk down it with any other recursers that want to come with you. Structure can be provided by facilitators, by study/project groups or by faculty at the center, but it's up to you where you go and what you learn. Interestingly, it is also free to attend if you're accepted onto a batch, which is another striking contrast with most tech bootcamps which typically carry eye-watering price tags. RC makes money by helping RC alumns find jobs after a batch and charging companies that hire them a recruitment fee.
One of the truly exceptional things about RC is the diversity you find there in literally every sense. The people are extraordinarily diverse, the levels of experience are diverse, and educational backgrounds are diverse. The diversity you find there is no accident - it is baked into the way RC operates. For example, RC provides generous grants of up to $7000 to cover living costs during a batch for traditionally under-represented groups of people in tech. All of this generates a richness to the community that is huge pleasure to witness.
The people weren't the only diverse part of RC - there were so many different and interesting projects being worked on it was hard to keep track. These projects ranged from the highly practical to the totally absurd. The main goal was to work on things that stretched you as a programmer and that kept you curious. People were building their own programming languages, exploring encryption methods, building beautiful animations with shaders, and even writing music with code. We would regularly present our work to each other and I was always amazed. These people were truly creative.
The faculty at RC have worked hard to make the working environment as healthy and supportive as possible. Curiosity is championed, diving deep into problems is encouraged, and a huge amount of effort is put into making everything open and inclusive. RC has four light-weight social rules which I thought worked well to set the tone. There were people who were just starting out in tech working on problems with people who had decades of experience. Everyone learned from each other and no egos ever got in the way.
For me, another hugely positive part of joining RC was the community that came with it. Once you attend a batch you join a vibrant and active community of current and past recursers which is so engaging it feels like you never really leave RC. RC's motto is "Never Graduate" and that has certainly been borne out in my experience. RC alumns are welcome back to work and socialize in RC's physical space in Downtown Brooklyn any evening they like and any time of day Thursdays to Sundays. They regularly hold presentation evenings and job fairs which alumns are welcome to attend. I have continued to learn and grow as a programmer through my connection with RC and I'm still making new RC friends all over the world, even during the global Covid-19 pandemic. Checking out the latest things going on at RC and catching up with people I know through RC on Zulip has become a regular part of my life.
I'd say RC is a great opportunity for most anyone looking to improve their programming. The one caveat I'd mention is that you'll need to be comfortable being pretty self-directed with your learning and projects. RC runs batches regularly throughout the year (schedule here). The minimum level of experience required seems to be roughly a few months of regular programming. Essentially, you need to be comfortable programming independently and you'll be asked to demonstrate that during interviews for a place. That said, as well as people early on in their tech careers, there are also people with decades of professional programming under their belt joining RC. There is definitely no upper limit on experience!
So - what is the Recurse Center? I hope this has given a little taste of what it's all about. But to be honest, it's pretty hard to do it justice. Maybe I should simply re-purpose the words of the famous Morpheus and say that "Unfortunately, no one can really be told what the Recurse Centre is. You have to see it for yourself". If you're excited by the idea of becoming a better programmer and meeting an awesome community of kind, curious and talented software engineers then you definitely should go see it for yourself. I'm excited to see what you create!
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