Redesigning the Recurse Center application to inspire curious programmers

Redesigning the Recurse Center application to inspire curious programmers(recurse.com)

76 points by nicholasjbs 46 days ago | 10 comments

zem 46 days ago |

I have been programming for most of my life, and am very engaged in the art and craft of it, but I have a very hard time answering superlative questions like "what is the weirdest bug you fixed" or "what project are you proudest of". mostly I enjoy projects while I'm doing them, but don't have the kind of memory that lets me compare old and new work and see which one I rated higher by whatever metric. also bugs in particular tend not to stick in my mind - I can ramble at length about fun architectural decisions or ad hoc DSLs, but bugs I mostly fix and move on; even if they were super interesting to debug at the time I tend not to remember them later on.

nicholasjbs 46 days ago | |

Would they be easier to easier to answer without the superlative? E.g., "What's a project you're proud of?"

Thanks for the feedback!

zem 46 days ago | | |

yes, definitely! the "-est" triggers decision paralysis but it's easy to think of several projects I'm proud of.

nicholasjbs 46 days ago |

If you've not seen them, the All Souls questions are really worth checking out. I've found them to be both fun and inspiring: https://www.asc.ox.ac.uk/past-examination-papers

righthand 46 days ago |

What happens to places like this that were about coding, now that LLMs are here to encourage people to not build good software?

nicholasjbs 46 days ago | |

(I'm one of the founders of the Recurse Center.)

At least so far, the impact of LLMs has been overall positive for RC. We have a big-tent community, which includes everyone from those who avoid LLMs at all costs to those who are all-in on them, and everyone in between. We have folks who come to our retreats with the explicit goal of not programming with LLMs[1] (usually because they've been using them extensively at their previous jobs) and others who use RC as an opportunity to learn how to program effectively with AI. There's also a lot of discussion here about how (and to what extent) to use LLMs effectively in the context of learning.

We wrote up our position on AI last July, and while a lot has changed since then, I think all our conclusions still hold up well[2]: "...whether you choose to embrace or avoid AI in your work at RC, you will need to build your own mental structures to grow as a programmer. When using AI, use it to amplify your ambitions, not to abdicate your agency. And regardless of what you do, be curious about and kind to the people around you."

Like everyone else, I have no idea what the future holds, but I'm confident we'll find a way to navigate it. I'm sure I have some motivated reasoning here, but I really do believe that humans will still want to understand and build things no matter how good the models get.

[1] https://miguelconner.substack.com/p/im-coding-by-hand

[2] https://www.recurse.com/blog/191-developing-our-position-on-...

namanyayg 46 days ago | |

I think I was one of the first ones where Cursor autocomplete really hit last year in March. I was the only one working with AI at full speed. I delivered at least four projects in six weeks using AI. Some of them I was brave enough to open source and write about as well. I gave six presentations as well.

I learned a lot more about the nuances of why AI is good, where it should be used more, and where it should not be. The stance of Recurse Center now around AI is very clear and one of the most informative ones. AI is great but I do think the fundamentals of programming will be needed to be an effective programmer in the future. At a base level I understand programming to mean giving instructions clearly. This applies to other areas of my life as well and I often see non-programmers sometimes struggling with it. One element of coding, i.e. giving precise instructions, will always remain and that's so joyful because you can build all sorts of insane things with _just_ instructions and it's always beautiful and amazing.

spindump8930 46 days ago | |

Having known some folks who did recurse, I think places like this want to select for those who consider coding a type of craft or art or self-expression. You can use LLMs, but stand by what you do and have pride in construction.