return();

I went into RC with as few expectations as possible. I hoped I’d meet some people, learn some things, make some things. Achievements unlocked for sure, but more specifically, this is some of what I came out with:

• Algernon app - I built an audio visualiser app in Flutter, learning about real-time audio processing, Fast Fourier Transforms and fragment shaders.
• caldavtui app - A TUI calendar app for the terminal. This started out as an Impossible Day project, progressed to ‘oh I can actually do this!’ and has now become a long-term project for me. It already works nicely but there’s a lot more I want to add and I’m fleshing out my knowledge of the relevant specs (eg iCalendar and CalDAV).
• Body doubling / pairing - This is a simple process — pair up with somebody and commit to working on something for an hour without allowing yourself to get distracted. It’s especially useful for me as somebody who works from home, helping me stay on track and to keep an eye on overall progress of whatever I’m working on.
• Comfort with Godot game development - I paired with another RCer who showed me what he’d learned so far as a Godot beginner himself. Then I had a day with an LLM, and a day or two on my own. Combined, these few days have left me feeling comfortable with Godot. There are of course lots of things I haven’t explored and am yet to learn, but as somebody who has built several games before I now feel ready to tackle any project that comes up in Godot. I have my bearing.
• Increased C/Go proficiency - After putting in a few dozen hours on each, I’ve gone from almost zero knowledge of C and Go, to beginner/intermediate level. Again, still loads to learn, but I have a level of comfort now and am no longer daunted at the idea of starting a project in these languages.
• Clarity on my career and where I might want it to go - Through some career-focused workshops I’ve done some structured thinking about my career in general and about what might suit me in future.
• Comfort with Zoom - Face-to-face video calls are an important part of the modern work environment, especially for remote workers. Before RC I used to get the sweaty-palmed jitters before a Zoom call, especially with strangers. Now it’s much more normal for me.
• Contacts/networking - I met loads of great people that I share interests with, have stayed in touch with some of them, and because of the general vibe of RC I feel comfortable contacting others in future if I ever have reason to.
• Updated CV - After some useful talks with the careers department I’ve reworked my CV to make it shorter and clearer. I’m pretty happy with the new version.

I can say with no exaggeration that I’d have been chuffed with any single one of those gains. To have come out of the process with all of them is way beyond what I might have hoped for. Truly amazing.

During an ’exercising your volitional muscles’ activity, we were asked to note down the thing we were most proud of about our time at RC. We discussed these things in small groups. When we returned to the main group some of us shared what we’d discussed, but I was feeling quiet and kept mine to myself.

For me, considering I nearly didn’t do it, and could have missed out on all those things I gained from RC, one part of the process stood out as most important:

The thing I’m most proud of is that I applied in the first place!