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Hacker Retreat Berlin

hackerretreat.com

42 pointsurlwolf38 comments

In sum: this is a Berlin-based version of Hacker School NYC, with a few twists: it's EU-based; part-time involvement is possible; and we'll incorporate some quantified-self hacks to measure progress (exactly what and how, TBD).

If you want to come hone your skills in one of the great cities of the world alongside a small, friendly group of committed coders, be sure to apply. Berlin has world-class culture, a blooming startup scene, high quality-of-life, great public transit - and it's all quite affordable.

If you know of great coders who love teaching and sharing, please let us know - we definitely want to get in touch with them as residents/mentors. Travel and living expenses will be covered, of course. Thanks HN!

Yes, the increased flexibility is something to highlight...

- We have an 'extended weekend' edition. That's weekend plus one day if you can convince your employer; If not, then just do > 14 weekends.

- We'll have a rolling release; you can pause the retreat, and come back. We know life interferes sometimes.

--- We also seem to have a bit of a functional/machine learning bent, at least on this first batch. I'm a data scientist, and my network reflects that. Limist is a more serious clojurean, he has a talk on euroclojure coming.

We also have a couple of people from the top 5 HN posters coming on this or some future batch.

If you worry that your interests will not match machine learning/functional, ... Ed, one of us, is a kick-ass all-rounder (back-end and front-end). He also designs. The entire site design is his idea. Berlin has huge JS and front-end communities, too.

>As any other placement service, we take 1/3 of the first year salary (paid by the employer).

Wait, what? I don't know what the average salary is for junior-to-senior programmers in Germany, but 1/3th of it can't be a little...

A typical salary for a software developer is between 35 and 40k Euros in Germany. Of course, if you've got a special skill set you can make a lot more. To people coming from the US, those salaries often appear to be "shockingly low" at first. Of course, this is before they take into account all the benefits, and this includes --- to pick three random examples --- not having to step over homeless people on the way to work, very low crime rates, or an extensive public transport system.

By the way, the few Americans I know who moved to Europe don't complain at all about the nominal wage differentials.

This is not about the nominal wage difference between America and Europe but about them taking 1/3 of that 35 to 40k.

My answer was referring to your comment that you didn't know what the average salary of a junior-to-senior developer in Germany was.

From the company, not the participants of the retreat! That percentage is also not unusual; 1/4 - 1/3 of the first year's salary seems like a pretty common range. Who would you rather have your future employer pay that fee? Some annoying headhunter, who only connects 2 parties or a skill-boost camp that supports your growth as a developer over several months. Just my 2 cents.

That's not 1/3 of that 35 to 40k. The employer pays the fee, not the employee. This is very important. We don't want you to make less money; in fact, if that was the case many people who are already in highly paid jobs would not do it (myself included).

Funded startups that are looking for the top talent, at any cost, are the ones that I assume will benefit the most. For them, 1/3 of the 1st year salary is an investment. Better pay that rather than having to have the position open for 6 months (time is money). Hiring is extremely hard, and the people you want to hire... are by definition almost never looking for jobs. These are the same people that are attracted by the idea of spending 3 months mastering a bleeding edge technology.

Also, 35 to 40k sounds really on the low end. I don't think I know anyone making that little. And this is Berlin, where salaries are lower than in the rest of Germany. 50k seems to be rock bottom for a seasoned front-end engineer, more for backend, even more for specialty stuff such as data science.

AFAIK, this is also how Hacker School NY works. I'm not a recruiter, nor want to be one :). I've never been recruited either. It sounds like a lot of money to me too, but it's the industry standard. On top of consuming all my free time the last 2-3 months, flying/hosting residents, paying for office space, etc is a significant cost. We hope that after the first batch, people are so appreciative that they will find it criminally bad if there's no next edition of the retreat. Making some money will give us the freedom to fly the best people, and provide the best experience possible. This is not a non-profit, but it's not run with the only intention of making money.

So where do the sponsors come in play?

Nice move guys! Once i've heard of Hacker School, i also dreamed about creating something like it here in Brazil.. (at least, after bootstraping my project, the one im stuck at right now)

So i know how you guys feel!

I hope more Hacker Schools like this start to pop all over the world..

We need to understand(and practice) education as something not monopolized only by the academy, but shared all over, and continuously happening over the lifespan of a human being

Knowledge wants to be free!

Kudos to you guys!

Let me add that we're prepared to do a little handholding for those who feel daunted by the prospect of moving to Berlin for three months. Berlin is a really laid-back city (where they turned the airport into a public garden and forgot to build a new one ...), and short-term integration is pretty straightforward.

Just a quick note with more details...

- The starting date is Oct 1st.

- We have some incredible residents already, and are looking for more.

- Please contact us if you want to be a student or a resident, or know someone who is a perfect match.

The story: This is inspired by Hacker School NY. When I saw they got Peter Norvig as a resident, I almost jumped into a plane straight. But I have a girlfriend, a dog, and a baby, so I cannot leave Berlin.

So, in the most unadulterated hacker spirit... I made my own :)

Berlin has some serious advantages over NY:

- It's dirt cheap to live here. Maybe 1/3 of NY prices

- There are plenty of talented people, and user groups.

- There are some desirable startups, and a shortage of hires (as anywhere else, really).

Edit: formatting

This looks really awesome. Funny enough I was just considering moving to Berlin for some startup work when my wife said "Why don't you go to Hacker School for a few months ?" (I had mentioned it earlier this year to her but the timing wasn't right)

So now this gets added to our list of "Why we should consider moving to Berlin". The only thing that has kept us off so far are the rather harsh winters. Was in Berlin about 60 days ago and of course, the summer is amazing and I totally loved the city for being so cheap and alternative... For New Yorkers, it's like Williamsburg, but all over the place ;)

I'll be following this closely. Thanks for taking the initiative to create this!

EDIT: Just told the wife, she says it's a sign - lol :P

"harsh winters" is relative. :) There tends to be less snow accumulation in Berlin than much of the Northeast US, and chances are you won't need a car, nor need to shovel it (plus walkway and driveway) out. And besides, meh-weather helps with productivity.

Come on! Winters are harsh, particularly the last one... The other thing you want to investigate before making the move is taxes! Income Taxes are high, the marginal rate is 45 pct.

For me, the winters are relatively better; unlike where I grew up (the 51st state), there's less snow on the ground, and walking everywhere keeps me warm. :)

As for taxes: if you're just coming for 3 months, no tax worries. Beyond that: 1) you get a lot more services for the tax money, like health insurance, university; 2) the treatment of capital gains taxes is very favorable for entrepreneurs: http://venturevillage.eu/gmbh-tax-change

Exactly. I come from Greece and haven't had any major problems with the Berlin winter so far.

London's cold was much more bitter, for what it counts.

How do I apply? I have subscribed to the list. Am I supposed to wait for you to contact me?

That's correct. Should be within a few hrs :)

Great. Thanks a ton! :)

Sorry I'm still a bit confused. Do we wait for a personalised response or reply to the update?

I'll contact you. But if you want to skip the first step, just reply to the update, and tell me:

- What tech you'd like to work during the retreat (or book to go through, or project to work on).

- Do you have a github/bitbucket?

- Do you want to do the fulltime or extended weekend version?

Berlin was "dirt cheap" ten years ago. Rents have been skyrocketing in recent years. On the other hand, salaries haven't.

Yes. Having lived in New York for many years and visited Berlin several times in the last few, I can say that the cost of living there is skyrocketing. Also, 1/3 of the price to live in Berlin vs. NYC is a vast exaggeration, especially if you're talking about an English-speaker looking for short-term digs.

I just met with one of the people behind this and I can heartily recommend it, very impressive and extremely nice. If you're in or around Berlin be sure to make contact with them, you won't regret it.

Do you plan to have batch 2 by early next year? I would absolutely love to attend! I'm a grad student in Singapore, focussing on machine learning and signal processing. I've long wanted to attend the NYC version, but american visas are a biatch!:p.

Yes, there is a 2nd batch planned for starting in early 2014, so stay in touch!

Also, as a foreigner, I've found the German bureaucracy reasonable to deal with: just read the rules twice and follow them to the letter. They generally don't treat people as suspects/criminals. Advanced education/degrees also brings additional respect and ease of visas/permits.

Thats awesome, thanks! I'll email you guys soon :)

From confirmation page:

"On tweeter, we are @hackerretreat, would be great if you could follow us there."

- Did you mean "twitter" ? - The 't' at the end is out of the tag - <a ..>@hackerretrea</a>t

Fixed, thanks!

Konstantin Haase of Sinatra/Ruby fame is based in Berlin and I would recommend him for a mentor.

https://github.com/rkh

Thanks, will contact him.

Sounds Cool! Who are the residents so far?

We'll post the details when everyone is ready. Some of them are coming back from vacation, others want to test the waters first... and of course there are some who have committed already. Some are in but don't know yet when and how long they'll come.

All in all, very impressive people.

If you would like to be a resident...

We have sponsors, so we'll be able to pay travel and lodging given the right circumstances.

The way it works is that we get some advanced people (residents) and invite them to stay with us and share what they know. There's no structure; if you come, you can work on whatever you want, as long as you help other people. Maybe some would become contributors to some of your projects. Hacker School NY managed to get Peter Norvig as a resident.

Weekends and Mondays are busier, because then the two editions are in the same room. During the week it's only the fulltime people, who are just a handful, but the most dedicated.

Nice idea. Good luck! ;)

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