I’ve decided to join the Recurse Center for the Spring 2 batch which starts next Monday and goes through June 25th.
I will try to update my blog once a week (or more!) with updates on things I’ve been learning about during this time.
What is the Recurse Center?
The Recurse Center is a self-directed educational retreat for programmers. It’s free to attend, and once you complete your batch recruiters will help you find a job.
What will I be working on?
I’m looking forward to spending lots of time on projects that interest me. Here are some I have in mind:
- Go through The Elements of Computing Systems and build a computer from scratch
- Work on a friendlier web interface for Prometheus, I’ve always struggled with visualizing how different Prometheus expressions fit together to form a query
- Write a TCP stack
- Improve my blog
- Give more presentations (they have a time each Friday where you can present for 5 minutes!)
- Learn about security, specifically heap overflows and wireless security
- Maybe learn about operating systems?
- Help newer programmers level up
Why now?
I’ve been feeling less productive and happy at work that I would like. The only part of my job that really brings me happiness is when I get to pair with other developers at work, and the time in the mornings in between 7am and 9am when I learn and let myself work on random projects.
The Recurse Center seems like the perfect combination of those two. I’m really excited to join and be inspired by a community of programmers from all skill levels, geographic locations, and walks of life!
I also need some time off work to recover and focus on my mental and physical health. I know that taking time off work without a structure in place or community to support me would probably make things much worse. The Recurse Center seems like a great way to keep working on the things that bring me happiness (programming and math) while keeping me from getting isolated during my time off.