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Epitech Alumni here (42 is basically the same thing but free). 1. Studied in CSULB / UCB, you really don't do enough of them. More theory than practise when yo

Epitech Alumni here (42 is basically the same thing but free). 1. Studied in CSULB / UCB, you really don't do enough of them. More theory than practise when you should probably seek theory when you're confronted to a problem that needs it. 2. You really don't need to know about automata theory, linear algebra or whatever to be a good developer. Brings me back to what I said in 1. 3. Actually the paper doesn't depicts the reality clearly: you have a lot of teacher assistant always available to help you, it's just that they are not allowed to gives you the answer, only to help you search in the right direction. When you encounter something tricky where finding documentation on the internet becomes an issue then you can talk about it with them. The system works quite well in Epitech. I have been a C & C++ assistant there and the level amongst the assistants is really good, and you could never hire the same number of qualified teachers (if you could find them). Having people that worked on the same project themselves quite recently (like 1 or 2 years ago) makes it that you will always find someone who knows what he is talking about. To teach CS this is really the best system I have seen so far, and it teach you to never get stuck, never trust blindly what someone says, and always go find the answers by yourself.

nitrogen 13y ago
2. You really don't need to know about automata theory, linear algebra or whatever to be a good developer. Brings me back to what I said in 1. No, but all of those things (like the Fourier transform you skipped mentioning) can be used to turn difficult problems into simple ones, making you an even better developer.
- nathanappere 13y ago
  Yes, but it's like a thousand other things that can make you a better developer. It has always seemed quite useless to me to try to learn as much theory as you can before starting to actually do significant projects. You should learn by doing those project, and when it appears that you need theory to make it better, then you learn it. I think there is a huge parallel with the lean model for CS teaching, programming yourself should always be the starting point.
  - nitrogen 13y ago
    It has always seemed quite useless to me to try to learn as much theory as you can before starting to actually do significant projects. I agree with this, but I also advocate occasionally exploring random theory that's unrelated to your current projects, expanding your mental toolbox. Sometimes you don't know you have a problem until you've already heard of the solution.
    - nathanappere 13y ago
      Agreed!
yodsanklai 13y ago
2. It all depends the kind of projects you want to work on. In Programming projects are great for some things, but not so much for others. The problem when learning CS with projects is that you face two difficulties at once. One is the "technology" side: syntax, bugs, programming environment and so on. The other are the concepts you're trying to learn. For instance, I wouldn't want to learn 3D graphics and C++ at the same time. Actually, my main grief with 42 is that it is presented as something revolutionary, which it isn't. And very little information is given on the website. There's is some sketch of a curriculum that is clearly out of reach for ordinary students. It's unclear how the teaching is going to be organized, or even who the staff is.
- nathanappere 13y ago
  Well I don't know many schools where you only do projects, classes are absolutely optional, you organise your time exactly the way you want, you don't need any kind of diploma to enter. The only mandatory part is being present for the project defense. Never saw this kind of teaching in any US university / school, so it's not that far fetched to call it "revolutionary". It certainly is in France, especiall (Epitech has been doing that for 10 years but you had to pay something like 40k which for us is a lot for education, and also you need a high school diploma, which is mandatory if you want the bachelor/master diploma delivered by the school to be officialy recognised by the government.)

nitrogen 13y ago

2. You really don't need to know about automata theory, linear algebra or whatever to be a good developer. Brings me back to what I said in 1. No, but all of those things (like the Fourier transform you skipped mentioning) can be used to turn difficult problems into simple ones, making you an even better developer.

nathanappere 13y ago
Yes, but it's like a thousand other things that can make you a better developer. It has always seemed quite useless to me to try to learn as much theory as you can before starting to actually do significant projects. You should learn by doing those project, and when it appears that you need theory to make it better, then you learn it. I think there is a huge parallel with the lean model for CS teaching, programming yourself should always be the starting point.
- nitrogen 13y ago
  It has always seemed quite useless to me to try to learn as much theory as you can before starting to actually do significant projects. I agree with this, but I also advocate occasionally exploring random theory that's unrelated to your current projects, expanding your mental toolbox. Sometimes you don't know you have a problem until you've already heard of the solution.
  - nathanappere 13y ago
    Agreed!

yodsanklai 13y ago

2. It all depends the kind of projects you want to work on. In Programming projects are great for some things, but not so much for others. The problem when learning CS with projects is that you face two difficulties at once. One is the "technology" side: syntax, bugs, programming environment and so on. The other are the concepts you're trying to learn. For instance, I wouldn't want to learn 3D graphics and C++ at the same time. Actually, my main grief with 42 is that it is presented as something revolutionary, which it isn't. And very little information is given on the website. There's is some sketch of a curriculum that is clearly out of reach for ordinary students. It's unclear how the teaching is going to be organized, or even who the staff is.

nathanappere 13y ago
Well I don't know many schools where you only do projects, classes are absolutely optional, you organise your time exactly the way you want, you don't need any kind of diploma to enter. The only mandatory part is being present for the project defense. Never saw this kind of teaching in any US university / school, so it's not that far fetched to call it "revolutionary". It certainly is in France, especiall (Epitech has been doing that for 10 years but you had to pay something like 40k which for us is a lot for education, and also you need a high school diploma, which is mandatory if you want the bachelor/master diploma delivered by the school to be officialy recognised by the government.)