Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock

Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock is the co-founder and CEO of the Recurse Center, a programming retreat based in New York City.12 As a lifelong unschooler, Nicholas had the opportunity to direct his own education from an early age, which likely influenced his approach to creating the Recurse Center.13

Professional Background

Nicholas co-founded the Recurse Center in 2011 and has been serving as its CEO since then.1 Prior to this, he had brief stints in other roles:

• Co-founder of Hackruiter (2010-2011)
• Software engineer and project manager at OpenPlans (2008-2010)
• Software engineering intern at The Open Planning Project (2007)1

The Recurse Center

The Recurse Center, under Nicholas's leadership, operates as a unique educational institution with several key features:

1. Self-directed learning: It's a retreat where programmers can recharge and grow, working at the edge of their abilities.1
2. Free attendance: The program is free for all participants, funded through a recruiting model.2
3. Ongoing community: The center follows a "Never graduate" motto, encouraging lifelong learning and maintaining an active alumni community.2
4. Diversity support: They offer need-based living expense grants to underrepresented groups in programming.2

Personal Interests

Outside of his work at the Recurse Center, Nicholas has a passion for:

• New York City, including its history, architecture, food, and transportation
• Learning Mandarin3

It's worth noting that while you provided a LinkedIn username in your query, the information I've shared comes from a different LinkedIn profile and other sources about Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock. The username you mentioned doesn't match the profile I found for him.