I found out that I was accepted into Recurse Center less than 48 hours before the batch was due to start! Recurse Center is a programming retreat in Brooklyn, NYC.

The very first day is held online so that Recursers who are attending online as well as in-person can catch up on all the introductory information.

The line that stayed with me the most today is the introduction by Recurse Faculty. Zoom somehow turned on my captions and created a transcript for the meeting, so I would like to print the lovely introduction they had here:

I am excited to welcome you all to RC.
I'd like to welcome you if you've been programming for 3 months or 10 years.
I'd like to welcome you if you can't wait to get started or you have no idea where to begin.
I'd like to welcome you if you consider yourself an introvert, an extrovert, or anything in between.
I'd like to welcome you, whether you're joining us during the middle of the day or the middle of the night.
I'd like to welcome you if you use Windows, Linux, Mac, OS, BSD, or.
I'd like to welcome you if you are object-oriented, functional, imperative, declarative, multi-paradigm, or not sure what any of those things.
I'd like to welcome you if you want to write apps, servers, languages, visualizations, games, or art.
I'd like to welcome you if you find beauty in the highest levels of abstraction, the lowest levels of the machine, the process of building things, or the end result.
And I'd like to welcome you if you're excited about AI, skeptical of it, or still forming an opinion.

Another interesting part was how the Recurse Center faculty introduced the Social Rules. I've known about the Recurse Social Rules for a long time — they were how I found out about the Recurse Center.

  • No feigning surprise
  • No well-actually's
  • No backseat driving
  • No subtle-isms

At the back of my mind is

I think these a