Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
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Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#2rn@42.fr ? That's sound good!
Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#3An english language story reporting the same news about this new Parisian developer school "42": http://www.rudebaguette.com/2013/03/26/rumor-confirmed-xavie...
Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#4For non french speaking people : Xavier Niel is the founder of Free, a major french internet and phone provider, known for kicking hornet nests (he's the "inventor" of low cost unlimited offers, ADSL back in the days, mobile phone very recently.)
42 is a programmer school, totally free of charge, with a "peer to peer" approach to education (whatever it means)
It'll take 4000 students and, after a marathon month (15 hours of programming a day), keeps the 1000 best.
Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#5For non french speaking people : Xavier Niel is the founder of Free, a major french internet and phone provider, known for kicking hornet nests (he's the "inventor" of low cost unlimited offers, ADSL back in the days, mobile phone very recently.) 42 is a programmer school, totally free of charge, with a "peer to peer" approach to education (whatever it means) It'll take 4000 students and, after a marathon month (15 h…
That's pretty much what epitech (Nicolas Sadirac's previous school) is about. The only difference seems to be that epitech is far from free (it's actually quite expensive for a "peer to peer" school, since the students do most of the teaching).
I've been convinced for quite a long that epitech is a scam that just works because of the enormous demand for IT graduates in the industry. Insert money, get a diploma. Making a free version now, that could change things. Color me skeptic but curious.
Disclaimer: I'm a former epitech student, although I dropped out in 3rd year.
Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#6For non french speaking people : Xavier Niel is the founder of Free, a major french internet and phone provider, known for kicking hornet nests (he's the "inventor" of low cost unlimited offers, ADSL back in the days, mobile phone very recently.) 42 is a programmer school, totally free of charge, with a "peer to peer" approach to education (whatever it means) It'll take 4000 students and, after a marathon month (15 h…
It's more accurate to say it takes 4000 candidates, and it enrolls the 1000 selected. Not wanting to nitpick, just to clarify a bit.
I know some of the people involved, wish them all the best. Niel, of course, has a maverick reputation, it's a pleasure to follow what he does.
I think this move is very smart: both a great way to give back to society and to find more talent.
Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#7An english language story reporting the same news about this new Parisian developer school "42": http://www.rudebaguette.com/2013/03/26/rumor-confirmed-xavie...
"After that the 4k selected will participate in a coding session (perhaps kind of like a mini hack-a-thon) sometime during the summer, from which 1k “geniuses” will be selected."
Based on what the website and press releases say, it seems like it will be closer to a 1-month long, 15 hours per day coding session. I wouldn't call that a "mini hack-a-thon".
They use the term "piscine" (pool), which is the term already used for a similar training step at Epitech (founded by the same Nicolas Sadirac mentioned in the article), another private tech-focused school based on similar ideas of "code, only code".
Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#8For non french speaking people : Xavier Niel is the founder of Free, a major french internet and phone provider, known for kicking hornet nests (he's the "inventor" of low cost unlimited offers, ADSL back in the days, mobile phone very recently.) 42 is a programmer school, totally free of charge, with a "peer to peer" approach to education (whatever it means) It'll take 4000 students and, after a marathon month (15 h…
That's pretty much what epitech (Nicolas Sadirac's previous school) is about. The only difference seems to be that epitech is far from free (it's actually quite expensive for a "peer to peer" school, since the students do most of the teaching). I've been convinced for quite a long that epitech is a scam that just works because of the enormous demand for IT graduates in the industry. Insert money, get a diploma. Makin…
Still a 4th year Epitech student, I don't agree with your 'scam' affirmation. I'm pretty sure that I would not have been able to follow traditional schools due to some attention problems, but going to Epitech allowed me to meet a lot of skillful students (including in my own promotion) and get better. Of course it wasn't free, but it was definitely worth it (I will start my first long term contract in may, before getting the diplom).
The concept of 42 is really the same that Epitech (but free), but I'm wondering how they will be able to apply it on a whole new school (since it means that the p2p model will not work for the first promotion, and that there isn't any school network). Furthermore, I'm wondering why it's free. "If you don't pay you're the product". So I'm a bit cautious.
Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#9For non french speaking people : Xavier Niel is the founder of Free, a major french internet and phone provider, known for kicking hornet nests (he's the "inventor" of low cost unlimited offers, ADSL back in the days, mobile phone very recently.) 42 is a programmer school, totally free of charge, with a "peer to peer" approach to education (whatever it means) It'll take 4000 students and, after a marathon month (15 h…
15 hours of programming a day? Holy shit. There's no way I could be productive/attentive for that long.
Re: Xavier Niel will open a "revolutionary" computer school
#10For non french speaking people : Xavier Niel is the founder of Free, a major french internet and phone provider, known for kicking hornet nests (he's the "inventor" of low cost unlimited offers, ADSL back in the days, mobile phone very recently.) 42 is a programmer school, totally free of charge, with a "peer to peer" approach to education (whatever it means) It'll take 4000 students and, after a marathon month (15 h…
That's pretty much what epitech (Nicolas Sadirac's previous school) is about. The only difference seems to be that epitech is far from free (it's actually quite expensive for a "peer to peer" school, since the students do most of the teaching). I've been convinced for quite a long that epitech is a scam that just works because of the enormous demand for IT graduates in the industry. Insert money, get a diploma. Makin…
I didn't catch the "peer-to-peer" part from the article, but that's interesting. (I'm not good with French.)
I understood that it would be based around doing a bunch of projects with peers and learning how to find information on the internet vs. learn it from a course/book.
So, how is this different from being a self-taught programmer? Does the peer interaction help that much? Are there any instructors to guide in any way?
Personally I'm a self-taught programmer (starting at age 10). I had slight pushes from my dad, and some peer influence from high school friends who were also self-taught programmers. Then I went to college and added a bunch of theoretical knowledge and more breadth (topics I didn't think to study) and depth (topics that I didn't care enough about to dive into on my own). Most of my practical ability to work is self-taught or on-the-job experience, but the schooling does help provide a better foundation for it.
So this sounds like it's meant to be a kick-starter to get people to be self-taught who didn't already teach themselves. Or is it more about getting some kind of "degree" so they are hire-able? (Whether a degree is legally necessary or just practically necessary.)