[h34t]

I spent last summer at Recurse Center and it was the most fun I've ever had programming. The team deeply understands how to create an atmosphere in which you can try things that would feel impossible on your own. After I left, I tried working from coffee shops again, and the difference was crushing. It suddenly felt terribly wrong to be surrounded by dozens of people, not one of whom understood what I was working on or cared. Yet outside of RC this has been my default mode of work and the reason why I've often felt like doing something else.

The one thing I felt lacking at RC was a greater sense of challenge: the emphasis was on personal development more than pushing the limits of the field itself. Building a research lab means that, with luck, RC can become a place where the world's best programmers will want to come to do their most interesting work - and all the better, in an open atmosphere where you can show people what you're building. I'm excited to see where this goes.