/recurse-log

Logging experience in the Fall2 batch at Recurse Center. Week by week as the sands of time collect in the garbage disposal of the mind.

Recurse Log 🦑

Personal log of my experience at Recurse Center.

Week 1

Week 1: Plans

  • go to as much stuff as possible
  • do a small / fun warm-up project

Week 1: Reflections

Accomplishments:

  • got a super basic home server working for the first time! 🤯
  • met the goal of going to a lot and meeting to a lot of great people

Blockers:

  • got past minor blockers with port forwarding and static ip setup (mostly isp's fault)
  • couldn't get some more creative (incorrect) uses of express to work

Interactions:

  • great interactions across the boar
  • surprised to have really positive / productive interactions with other teachers
  • got a starting point for tapping into the weird art / zine alumni community at recurse

Feelings

  • :::)))

Takeaways:

  • RC community exceeds all expectations
  • shocked at how positive it feels here
  • working on random inspiration projects is more satisfying than I was expecting
  • creative coding is codename for minihackathon and its amazing

Plans and changes for next week:

  • daily leetcode 😭
  • daily brainstorms (idea + why)
  • daily exercise group
  • zinebot
  • gallerybot

What do you want to discuss with the group?

(eureka moments, tips that worked really well for you, things you want to find a collaborator for, things you need help with, etc.)

  • building a publicly accessible home server is easier than building a herokuapp (??)

Bonus Question:

What are some things I'd like to work on during my batch that I haven't gotten around to planning yet?

  • a big weird esoteric art / code project (?)
  • some kind of practical platform for visual art hippies / art students (??)
  • start a zine / art weirdo group maybe
Week 2

Week 2: Plans

  • leetcode group ❌
  • exercise group ✅
  • daily brainstorm ☑️
  • zinebot ✅
  • gallerybot ❌

Week 2: Reflections

Accomplishments:

  • got a couple of good workouts in with the morning exercise group
  • got zinebot rebuilt, cleaned up and working
  • had an excellent pairing session working on zinebot
  • hosted first two meetings and they seemed to go really well
  • had productive project brainstorm

Blockers:

  • having a cold was the only major hinderance
  • butting up against same speed issues with imagemagick
  • child care schedule still an issue (changes next week)

Interactions:

  • great pairing session on zinebot
  • great zine / stickers group meeting

Feelings

  • tired / like I didn't get enough work done

Takeaways:

  • got some great exposure to working in google colab and image manipuation using python
  • got over a nasty cold that derailed me for 2-3 days
  • got confirmation that image magick isn't a crazy tool to be using
  • got pointed towards client-side web-assembly version of imagemagick

Plans and changes for next week:

  • 1-2 daily leetcodes
  • add 2-3 layouts to zinebot
  • basic gallerybot build / install
  • make budget / plan for solar server
  • get new homepage on server

What do you want to discuss with the group?

(eureka moments, tips that worked really well for you, things you want to find a collaborator for, things you need help with, etc.)

  • maybe get advice on gallerybot after basic build
  • get feedback on zinebot after 2-3 layouts done

Bonus Question:

What are some things I'd like to work on during my batch that I haven't gotten around to planning yet?

  • some kind of practical platform for visual art hippies / art students (??)
  • leetcode

Links:

Week 3

Week 3: Plan

  • 1-2 leetcode sessions
  • 2-3 zinebot layouts
  • mvp gallerybot build / install

Week 3 Reflections:

  • coded a lot
  • finished zinebot basics!
  • had good art & chill meeting
  • no leetcode
  • felt like I coded too much
  • didnt get a lot of socializing in
  • had good meetings with Erika on Machine Learning
  • had a good meeting with Ed on job search / bootcamps / scifi
  • had clarity on other rc projects
    • zinebot ✅
    • gallery-bot-net
    • solar-server
    • this-future-does-not-exist
    • drum-and-bass-bot
    • studio-swipe

Links

Week 4
  • Completely forgot what I worked on but I remember it felt like a really good week.
Week 5

Plans

  • learn about machine learning!

Reflections

  • had great meetings all week with the ML folks in my batch

Accomplishments

  • started fast.ai and got a pairing project figured out for the rest of the batch maybe!

Blockers

  • it was tough finding a starting point but I did!

Interactions

  • meetings with Erika, Ben and Michael Nagle were awesome
  • good coffee chats too!
  • hanging out on the couches is always a good move!

Feelings

  • feeling super excited about pairing on fast.ai!

Takeaways

  • staying open to projects and talking to the ML people seems to have been the right move!

Next Week

  • start coding out stable diffusion from scratch in rust with michael maybe! 🤞

Links

Week 6

Plans

  • fully dive in to fast.ai and rust with michael

Reflections

  • felt like progress was a bit slow
  • blocked by rust syntax and environment / setup issues with notebooks

Accomplishments:

  • felt like I got off the ground with Rust
  • feel comfortable with Rust book / docs / basic concepts
  • feel like I can continue to learn rust independently after batch
  • felt like I got off the ground with using notebooks / gpu services
  • felt like I got some ownership over fast.ai
  • feel like I could continue working through it independently after batch
  • finally settled on interface for home server and shared link with some people
  • got some really interesting / inspiring prints sent to my printer
  • feeling really proud of that project
  • had great conversations on post-batch art show
  • got the ball rolling to talk over next steps with sonali

Blockers:

  • hitting basic syntax walls with rust
  • feels like I need (and want) to go back and study rust fundamentals
  • hitting walls with environment set-up in notebooks / gpu service environments
  • not sure where to start in getting more experienced with those

Interactions:

  • a lot of really inspiring conversations and pairing time with michael nagle
  • got out to another in-person meet up in SF with old bootcamp / employer community
  • got to talk more and think more about career path after batch
  • missed going to checkins a bit but felt like a good different side of the RC experience

Feelings:

  • feeling really positive / fulfilled with RC experience
  • feeling like I want to have some tangible output

Takeaways:

Next Week:

Links:

Week 7 worked on fastai??
Week 8 ## Summary * worked on fastai * participated in hackathon * gave non-tech art talk * went to ml meadow * had positive overlap with josef and alex * figured out gradio * figured out gpt3 basics

Links:

FastAI Links

MAIN FASTAI NOTEBOOK

HUGGINGFACE TOKEN

FINE TUNING EXAMPLE

IMPORT FINE TUNING

GRADIO EXAMPLE

GRADIO BASICS

3D SCANNING LINKS

Colab Notebooks

Image to Prompt

STATIC STEPS EXAMPLE

AI FEEDBACK LOOP PROJECT