[HN Gopher] On the Closing of 42 Silicon Valley from 42 co-found...
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       On the Closing of 42 Silicon Valley from 42 co-founder Kwame
       Yamgnane
        
       Author : ofou
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2022-06-26 09:23 UTC (13 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.qwasar.io)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.qwasar.io)
        
       | egypturnash wrote:
       | _I opened the campus with Gaetan in 2016, and I still remember
       | the first day of the first piscine._
       | 
       | The first... what? Fishes?
       | 
       | Wikipedia tells me that "piscene" means:
       | 
       | Piscine: pertaining to fish.
       | 
       | It is also a French noun meaning "swimming pool"; see La Piscine
       | (disambiguation).
       | 
       | The Latin word piscina (or sacrarium) denotes a shallow basin
       | placed near the altar of a church.
       | 
       | None of these make sense in the context of its later use ("...we
       | started the first cohort with around 300 students, and grew to
       | just over 1,000 over the next 18 months with another 1,000 in the
       | pipeline for future piscines..."). It seems to be used as a vague
       | synonym for "cohort"?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | Nextgrid wrote:
         | Even in French it doesn't actually make sense.
        
         | bombela wrote:
         | Piscine in French == Swimming pool in English.
         | 
         | This choice of word stands for the fact that you are
         | intensively immersed in it.
         | 
         | A more American English translation would be boot-camp.
        
         | korfuri wrote:
         | That's a 42-specific term referring to the intensive training
         | slash selection period at the beginning of their cursus.
        
           | Fiahil wrote:
           | You can trust Korfuri's explanation because he has some
           | experience with Piscines ;)
           | 
           | Hello there !
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | thr0wawayf00 wrote:
       | > Part of that science is about motivation, and from my
       | experience, free education is not always what is best, and we saw
       | that in many students. It has its place undoubtedly, but there is
       | also power in motivation, discipline, determination, and
       | accountability - many of you have succeeded because of these
       | traits.
       | 
       | How does paid education influence motivation, discipline,
       | determination and accountability in ways which a free education
       | does not? This reads like a shot taken at public education but
       | maybe I'm misunderstanding here.
        
         | paidedu wrote:
         | Education is always paid, and the beliefs embedded in the
         | curriculum taught are always naturally aligned with the
         | interests of the payer.
         | 
         | There is no "free" education.
         | 
         | If that's taking a shot at public education, well, it just
         | depends on whether you think the government's interests are
         | always aligned with the interests of pupils
        
           | dangus wrote:
           | But really that's just pedantic hair-splitting, everyone
           | knows that there's no such thing as a free anything.
           | 
           | The whole point of "free" education is that it's free at time
           | of use. That's the whole benefit of it.
           | 
           | Free education is a great equalizer in society, otherwise
           | it's another exclusionary thing for the wealthy to hoarde.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | mathattack wrote:
         | I cut a lot of class during my undergraduate education, which I
         | didn't pay for. I never missed class in grad school, which I
         | did pay for.
         | 
         | (I regret my immaturity in hindsight)
        
       | 42_big_throw wrote:
        
       | dangus wrote:
       | Feels like a fluff piece, I'm not sure what we're supposed to get
       | out of this. It sounds like 42 and Qwasar were/are coding boot
       | camps, which are a dime a dozen.
        
         | natas wrote:
         | Yeah, it's just not worth it, there are no real teachers, I
         | doubt taking that class will land you a job anywhere.
        
           | Fiahil wrote:
           | You surely heard of Docker, right ?
        
             | bombela wrote:
             | 42 is a spin off of Epitech. At Epitech, the student pays
             | each year directly. 42, your first employer pays back the
             | school. Something like that.
             | 
             | dotCloud/Docker was built by graduates from Epitech. Not
             | sure if you can draw much conclusion. Maybe that this style
             | of school does seem to work.
        
       | Fiahil wrote:
       | Not a 42 alumni, but Epitech 2015 (so I saw the split and the
       | creation of 42 while I was between my second and third year).
       | 
       | I'm not surprised that it was much more difficult to get the
       | school to work in the US. Their loss.
       | 
       | Best of luck for qwasar !
        
       | bsaul wrote:
       | crazy to learn that 2 years after it's happened. There was
       | absolutely 0 media coverage on the subject. Searching for it on
       | google only returns the articles publishes when it opened, both
       | in french and english...
        
       | Nadeus wrote:
       | I did my first internship at 42 Paris where they manage the whole
       | 42 network.
       | 
       | On my first day, a colleague showed me a room filled with desk
       | chairs that were from the Fremont campus and said I could bring
       | one at home if I wanted to (which I didn't).
       | 
       | Also, a lot of cameras and computers were allegedly stolen by
       | students or returned to Paris unusable when the campus closed.
        
         | 42_come_on_now wrote:
         | I went to 42 SV and was there when it closed, now gainfully
         | employed and grateful for the opportunity.
         | 
         | There was absolutely rampant embezzlement of money by the
         | French staff who came to initially start it.
         | 
         | It was the hubris from Paris that caused the school to fail
         | (opening up a massive campus with no real plans to actually
         | fill it up, tying grant money to enrollment numbers that were
         | infeasible and leading them to take anyone) that caused the
         | school to fail. If they had started slowly, and focused on
         | quality 42 SV would have been great- a lot of good people were
         | there.
         | 
         | As it was, I have no doubt that they were thrilled to use Covid
         | as an excuse to close the branch without bad publicity. A lot
         | of scandals at 42 if anyone cares to look.
        
           | Nadeus wrote:
           | Why would there be more than 40 other campuses in the world
           | that seem to be running smoothly then?
           | 
           | Actually it would be funny if you were right because it would
           | mean I've met these guys back in France.
           | 
           | Regarding the scandals, it's true that there has been a lot
           | of them back when 42 was managed by the former director of
           | Epitech (he had sexual relations at school).
           | 
           | But with the new director (who joined in 2018), things seem
           | to go pretty smoothly
        
             | mrb wrote:
             | Nicolas Sadirac had sex at the 42 campus? Never heard of
             | that one...
        
               | Nadeus wrote:
               | Source: https://etudes.developpez.com/actu/256794/A-l-
               | Ecole-42-de-Xa...
               | 
               | (The picture in the middle of the article doesn't require
               | to understand french to be understood)
        
       | natas wrote:
       | I am a Fortune 500 recruiter; I'd exercise caution if you intend
       | to put unaccredited companies (as opposed to schools) on your
       | resume. You might as well leetcode, it will save you some money
       | and you will get better results.
        
         | Nadeus wrote:
         | 42 is not a company
        
         | Dan_Sylveste wrote:
         | Can you give some examples of common accreditations that apply
         | to companies and how you would rate them (the accreditations)
         | from a recruitment perspective?
        
       | AdmiralAsshat wrote:
       | (2020)
        
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       (page generated 2022-06-26 23:01 UTC)