Hacker News
July 17, 20261 min read
" That idea quickly fizzled, and we spent the better part of a year pivoting between other ideas that also failed. Finally, we made something that we wanted ourselves: a self-directed programming retreat, where people built fun projects, contributed to open source, and helped each other become better programmers. After running two small batches, we launched on HN[1] and got an incredible reception.
That post on HN helped us reach beyond our personal networks and meet programmers from around the world, many of whom have since become friends. HN brought us the majority of people who came to our next few batches, and in the years since, HN has remained our #2 source of applicants (after word of mouth). Alas, pg's comment[2] on HN when we launched turned out to be prescient: Running free programming retreats isn't a billion-dollar business, but it's still a worthwhile thing to do, and has positively impacted over 3,000 people so far.
And 15 years on I still wake up every day excited to keep working on it. So, thanks HN, for helping make the Recurse Center possible, and for helping me find my life's work. id=3435183 [2] "This sounds like a crazy plan for a startup, I realize, but this is the right sort of crazy.
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