Today was my fifth day and the end of my first week at the Recurse Center as a participant in this year’s Summer 2 batch!

Yet again I managed to fill most of my day with Zoom sessions, and yet again they were good and worth the time!

Here are just a few of the many things I learned about from peers today:

  • AI safety
  • Game dev with Godot
  • How different algorithms for matrix multiplication can have a dramatic performance impact due to CPU cache lines

Other events were largely focused on providing space for structured personal reflection. Over the years it seems that RC has developed a very thoughtful approach to this retreat that really accounts for how participants may be feeling and how that can impact what they’re able to get out of their time here. I’m very grateful for both the thoughtfulness of the retreat organizers, and also the care and thoughtfulness demonstrated by fellow participants. This really is a remarkable community!

Next week I plan to continue focusing on meeting and getting to know more people, and then I expect I’ll dial back a bit on non-programming time and get down to focusing more on programming. I’m ansty to write more Rust, but I also have a lot of amazing batchmates to get to know, and all the advice I’ve received from alums is that the first two weeks is the best time to get to know people - before everyone settles into their more focused routines.