My One Day at Recurse Center
My opinion on the matter is that RC was unfairly heavy handed. The cost (to everyone) of booting the individual out was greater than the cost of the RC buddy saying “hey, pay attention, these meetings are required; this is what you missed...” I don’t know the author’s disposition but I can imagine many personalities and circumstances where getting kicked out of this program would be devastating, emotionally or otherwise, especially if one planned for such a long “retreat” away from ordinary life.<p>When I asked my friends about the article, I was surprised to find opinions ranging from matching my own, to the opposite (“minimal tolerance for rule-breaking is justified in university environments to deal with unruly”). I never really investigated RC’s values and mission too deeply, but I always imagined they wanted to attract participants from truly diverse walks of life—intellectual, emotional, and economic. While it’s clear the author missed the 7am meeting because he goofed, I could imagine other individuals who would have missed because (for example) they have children and didn’t sleep, or they have depression and slept too much. It seems to me that zero-tolerance negatively affects such individuals, and pushes them out of programs like these.