In the last few days, I’ve gone from RC in Brooklyn to moving back to San Francisco to currently sitting on a plane to the Dominican Republic.
Recurse is over! It happened! What an excellent time.
I got a lot out of projects, reading, meet ups, interviewing and online courses. The study and research was varied and rewarding.
In the end, though, I got as much or more from being around the people at RC as the individual study. When friends and family would ask me why I chose RC over some other program, I would include in my explanation that RC seemed to “produce incredibly bright and creative people that I want to emulate”. This last week at RC, though, I realized that was poorly said - it isn’t that RC produces good people. It attracts people that share a set of ideas about themselves and the world that strongly correlate with a variety of awesome outcomes. These ideas include:
- Learning and exploration is an act of continuing to become. There is no age or experience level or set of obstacles that prevents becoming.
- Asking and reacting to questions is an art in itself. The right questions and answers are more conversational than transactional. All parties learn something without feeling like, at some point, they had to reiterate that despite the fact they are exploring unknown territory, they are still smart and worth talking to.
- After a certain amount of research, trying shit out is paramount to understanding. Interactivity unlocks progress.
- Computers are magic. Not because they can’t be explained, but because of their endless power to engage and involve and generate experiences. Programmers are witches and wizards. It is important to wield the power with proper levels of respect and thoughtfulness.
- Humans matter. Being kind and working to elevate one another is a prime directive.
I am very lucky to have heard about RC via the internet, been taken in by its promise of productive self-driven learning, and to have had such a positive experience there.
Next steps for me include this vacation to the DR, finishing up various little loose ends from RC projects in January (including the nand2tetris OS), visiting family in Vancouver, then starting on the Workbench team of Domino Data Lab as a software engineer in February!