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42 (school)

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81–90 of 152 posts

Re: 42 (school)

#81
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not look at the source to get the right information? https://www.42.us.org/42-admissions-overview-requirements-pr... https://www.42.us.org/42-admissions-overview-requirements-pr... > I AM NOT BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18 AND 45. CAN I COME TO 42? > Yes! We are looking for learners who are motivated. In establishing the school in the US, we focused first on the age range we’re familiar with, then expanded to include hig…

For what it’s worth, I’ve been absolutely smoked in 5k races by people who were 40+. Instead of offending those people by implying they don’t have the stamina to keep up, just say no. People respect “no.” No one respects disingenuous language.

It's likely illegal to "just say no".

Re: 42 (school)

#82
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand, you say they allow to learn at your own pace but don't offer enough support for those who need it, that certainly sounds like trying to fit all with one size? I've done Ensimag, which is a public school in the same sector, and you definitely could skip classes if you wanted to (though most of the ones who skipped classes did it out of sloppiness)

I meant "at your own pace" as in "they let you decide how you want to learn it". Meaning that instead of following classes (which were quite basic anyway) I spent most of my time reading man pages and reading obscure forums, and they were perfectly fine with that. Those who had issues were those who needed to be told where and what exactly to look for. They often felt like they were paying for little to no teaching (…

Sure, but that's just a different form of fitting one size for all, where they assume that every student can learn by themselves.

And once again, all engineering schools considers their students adult enough to let them do their thing: there's no repercussion if you don't go to classes, it's not 42-specific

Re: 42 (school)

#83

I'm a student at the Paris 42 campus. It is not true that the average 42 student lack theoretical understanding. We may not take a semester long course in compiler theory for example, but we do manage to build our own shell scripting interpreters and pick up enough compiler theory to define a grammar, build a parser to produce an AST and then interpret it accordingly. The same goes for other theoretical foundations o…

Quite honestly, most companies don't care about one's compiler theory knowledge or ability to build shell scripting interpreters, nor should they.

Re: 42 (school)

#84
post #32

Having interviewed a bunch of 42 graduates, my main issue with 42 is that it doesn't teach their students to think about what they're doing, encouraging them instead to rush to the keyboard and emit as much code as they can as if programming for the last day of their project. This seems to resonate well with the culture of piscines at 42. To me, this is as silly as training Biathlon athletes to not even aim before th…

Depending on the problem, I disagree with this idea "think before you code". I think /by/ coding, sometimes a problem is too big to fit into my head and if I write some code and try to string it together the code will tell me where my mental concept is missing something.

If the real underlying problem/solution is a shape too big to put in your head, what do you propose? Pen and paper as superior to code for modelling things?

Re: 42 (school)

#85
post #32

Having interviewed a bunch of 42 graduates, my main issue with 42 is that it doesn't teach their students to think about what they're doing, encouraging them instead to rush to the keyboard and emit as much code as they can as if programming for the last day of their project. This seems to resonate well with the culture of piscines at 42. To me, this is as silly as training Biathlon athletes to not even aim before th…

Yes, they modelled it after Epita which was also about code, code, code. Also, while it's nice that Xavier Niel finances a school that is free, most of the universities and Grandes Ecoles (where many developers graduate from) are also free, and financed with public money. They work great and produce really skilled developers and architects. The reality is that Xavier Niel didn't do a Grandes Ecoles, he's mostly self-…

> Yes, they modelled it after Epita which was also about code, code, code.

Yeah, no. 42 was modeled on Epitech. If EPITA was about "code, code, code", why did Sadirac leave and founded Epitech and 42 ?

Re: 42 (school)

#86
post #58
post #32

Having interviewed a bunch of 42 graduates, my main issue with 42 is that it doesn't teach their students to think about what they're doing, encouraging them instead to rush to the keyboard and emit as much code as they can as if programming for the last day of their project. This seems to resonate well with the culture of piscines at 42. To me, this is as silly as training Biathlon athletes to not even aim before th…

> To me, this is as silly as training Biathlon athletes to not even aim before they shoot. People should learn this mantra: coding is to software development what moving pieces is to chess.

> coding is to software development what moving pieces is to chess.

AFAIK, when teaching kids chess, the best way to start is teaching them how to move the pieces.

Re: 42 (school)

#87
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they modelled it after Epita which was also about code, code, code. Also, while it's nice that Xavier Niel finances a school that is free, most of the universities and Grandes Ecoles (where many developers graduate from) are also free, and financed with public money. They work great and produce really skilled developers and architects. The reality is that Xavier Niel didn't do a Grandes Ecoles, he's mostly self-…

That totally sounds like gossip to me. I'm very sceptical that "he [created] a school [as a] kind of a middle finger to them".

The personal history of the founders totally supports this narrative.

Their CVs should be findable on the public internet.

Re: 42 (school)

#88
post #86
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To me, this is as silly as training Biathlon athletes to not even aim before they shoot. People should learn this mantra: coding is to software development what moving pieces is to chess.

> coding is to software development what moving pieces is to chess. AFAIK, when teaching kids chess, the best way to start is teaching them how to move the pieces.

The very next thing you teach them after the theoretical knowledge of how the pieces move is to sit on their hands, to avoid making impulsive moves.

Re: 42 (school)

#89
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they modelled it after Epita which was also about code, code, code. Also, while it's nice that Xavier Niel finances a school that is free, most of the universities and Grandes Ecoles (where many developers graduate from) are also free, and financed with public money. They work great and produce really skilled developers and architects. The reality is that Xavier Niel didn't do a Grandes Ecoles, he's mostly self-…

That totally sounds like gossip to me. I'm very sceptical that "he [created] a school [as a] kind of a middle finger to them".

I don't think that's the main motive for his creating 42, but he does have a very strong anti-Grandes Écoles bias.

Re: 42 (school)

#90
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they modelled it after Epita which was also about code, code, code. Also, while it's nice that Xavier Niel finances a school that is free, most of the universities and Grandes Ecoles (where many developers graduate from) are also free, and financed with public money. They work great and produce really skilled developers and architects. The reality is that Xavier Niel didn't do a Grandes Ecoles, he's mostly self-…

That totally sounds like gossip to me. I'm very sceptical that "he [created] a school [as a] kind of a middle finger to them".

France is still very much an aristocracy.

Niel did not come from the traditional path of the elites (Polytechnique Paris, Centrale, etc.).

He was self taught, and god forbid, earned money through minitel porn. The aristocracy considers him, well, gross.

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