We are an in-person group of people interested in software engineering as a fun activity of leisure time as well as a craft to become skilled at.
Programming is a fun skill we want to become better at. We value learning together rather than alone. We are a school because the etymological definition of school is “leisure time”. We are a school that is:
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the
belief that one’s work is terribly important.
— Bertrand Russell
school < from Ancient Greek σχολεῖον (skholeîon), from σχολή (skholḗ, “spare time, leisure”, later, “conversations and the knowledge gained through them during free time; the places where these conversations took place”) — (from Wiktionary)
School used to mean leisure; then it came to be the things one gained when on leisure. Now it means death.
Let’s reclaim it.
The goal of Chaitin School is to create space, in both spatial and temporal dimensions. Space for people to explore ideas, to make experiments and to fail; to make jokes, to participate, and to meet new friends and networks.
Chaitin School is not interested in acquiring money. Managing money is a very distracting process, which would cause us to stop focusing on the essence of what we really want to do here: learn computer science and software engineering. Paradoxically, we desire material assets, which makes the only way of receiving them to be as gifts.
Inclusivity. We aim to be radically inclusive. No fees, no tickets, no applications, no acceptance criteria. We welcome everybody who wants to take part in our activities. Our only requirement is our Code of Conduct, which we hope is embraced and welcomed by everyone.
Expertise. We view software building both as an engineering discipline and as a craft. We value both skill and creativity as things we want to develop. Among others, these require practice, intelligence, consistency, persistence.
Humour. Computers are fun and if they’re not, there is no point programming them. The element of amusement is fundamental to our approach.
Gifting. There are no transactions involved in what we do. We gift as much as we feel comfortable. What usually happens is that people appreciate it and take up an active role too. But this is neither required nor expected.
Democracy. Traditional learning institutions have knowledge authorities who provide absolution. It’s useful to learn along someone experienced that has many answers, however, hierarchy means people have to depend on the opinion of one (or a few). In contrast, we aim to create a space where knowledge is assessed from its content, regardless of where or whom it came from.
Exploration. We are interested in the knowledge behind computer science and software engineering. Whether some of it has already been discovered is irrelevant. We are interested in both kinds—and most times, by thinking about what you already know, you discover what you don’t.
Community. Only if it is shared is there value to this project. Thankfully, there are a lot of people to share it with; it’s hard only because it—the community and the projects—are constantly defined and redefined.
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