Recurse Center: Week 3

Mon Nov 25

Stuck in between // It is what it is

🏡 Week 3 has been a study in adapting to the realities of doing RC with a young family. Kitchen sink leaks, doctor appointments, early daycare pickups, and a little one who needed extra love this week: it has been a reminder that this “retreat” is still happening within the context of the rest of life.

👻 Still, there were victories. My Nature of Code ecosystem (echosystem?) got its first inhabitant: a bouncy ghost with an atmospheric boo (click to enable sound). The book club continues to feel like a warm hug: a creative group of people following their whimsy and learning generously. Love it! I’m still in Chapter 1 somehow, but nobody minds. The pressure to keep pace exists only in my head (!!).

💀 “Impossible Stuff Day” felt like a hackathon day inside of a hackathon retreat. My “impossible” (or at least, ambitious) goal: build a small town on the web with LLM-powered NPCs that visitors can interact with. I spent the day learning Phaser 3 and diving into concepts like tilesets and sprites. Two tutorials later, I had a charming Pokemon-style map that sparked my nostalgia. I really enjoyed the concept of the day and the day itself, which is a bit surprising for me because I am the perfectionist/completionist type!

🤔 The interrupted flow in this week allowed me to reflect more about RC itself. Turns out that there’s this weight that I’m carrying – the sense that this might be my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fully focus on exactly what I want to make with code. While Recursers do return, the financial reality of taking more time away from work/earning, especially with the aforementioned young family, makes a return feel unlikely. But as another batch-mate put it, perhaps there’s a way to convert programming for joy into financial freedom… (to be continued)

📆 The faculty-led “Reflect & Unblock” workshop offered a potential way towards making the most of my time here: intentionally scheduling social days vs. deep work days ahead of time. It’s a strategy to hopefully prevent reverting to my pre-RC work hermit tendencies, while still making space for focused work. Because as much as I want to dive deep into my projects, I don’t want to lose the “learning generously” aspect that makes the RC community special.

🌐 This site continues to evolve, both in reality and in vision. After Impossible Stuff Day, the end goal for this feels less abstract. I’m starting to see this batch in two acts: the first half for developing the immersive aspects that I envision, the second half for integrating the ML. We’ll see how it goes! My stream has become a real highlight (another shout out to the original stream). As one batch-mate befittingly put it, it’s like a virtual “fridge” where I can stick up my artwork and words. Microblogging here feels freer and safer than Bluesky/Twitter. Having this concept resonate with other batch-mates has been particularly validating: there’s something so nice about putting my efforts out there and having it spark inspiration in others. It feels like I’ve really hit the mark that I was aiming for.

🌊 At the end of the third week, I’ve added yet another rhythm. Some days you finish tutorials and commit code. Other days you’re under the kitchen sink mopping up water. It is what it is.