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.
I attended my first RC event the other day for recruiting and I was so impressed with everything. It was the first recruiting/networking event I've ever been to where it didn't feel like everyone was trying to sell me something. It was great to be surrounded by engineers.
With that said, it wouldn't surprise me to see this turn into the next Xerox PARC, where perhaps they don't capitalize on all of these new ideas but it truly pushes the envelope forward. It could be great for the world, but I think a lot of times the ability to produce these innovative ideas and bringing them to market can work against each other.
This sounds great. Funding people over projects is the right approach to doing research, imo, because of the dangers of pursuing research topics simply because they seem fundable or being afraid to pursue more risky research that could be more beneficial solely due to fundability. I hope this model works great for them and finds its way into more types of science as well.
Funding people over projects is the right approach to doing research
I would argue this is already essentially the dominant model. There are already more plausible projects than there is money to fund all of them, and the credibility of the person doing the proposing appears to be pretty decisive in terms of whether you actually get funding or not. It also isn't that uncommon for people to be a little dishonest about the funding and play games to shuffle it around to accomplish different ends. It would be nice to eliminate that layer, but I don't think it would be a revolutionary advance in quality or anything.
Academia has used this model for a long time. Endowed chairs are a good example. Universities like faculty members that can attract quality students, quality faculty, and most importantly lots of grand money.
This is really great and excites me both as an RC/HS alumnus and a (quantum) physicist that loves Nielsen/Chuang's book on "Quantum Computation and Quantum Information". As an experimentalist that book helped me so much in understanding quantum state/process tomography and quantum algorithms. Today it is still the go-to reference for "practical quantum computing" and (IMHO) by far the most accessible and thorough reference on the principles of quantum computing.
What I find even more exciting is that he wants to work on improving software development, something that I'm trying to do as at withquantifiedcode.com .
I guess I have the perfect excuse now to apply for another batch of RC :D
I finally got the gall to apply to Recurse after a couple years of following their work and folks coming in and out, waiting for the day I was ready for it. I can't help but be really excited just at the change to work with so many ridiculously intelligent folks. It really is a new age when it comes to education in the programming field and it is just so exciting to be a part of.
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.