Why I’m Taking a Chance on 42

Edit: This is part of a series that culminated here, Next post here.

Edit2: I consolidated all the posts of the piscine daily posts here

Edit3: You can read up about what it’s like as a cadet at 42 here

I’ve wanted to learn to code for a very long time, in some ways I’ve been trying to learn for over ten years. I’ve taken intro classes at colleges only to have teachers not actually teach, I’ve done online tutorials such that I can make hello world in over ten languages, but that doesn’t actually do much for me or my life. I’m constantly around it, reading along with hacker news, reddit feeds about AI and trying to get my brother to teach me as well only to end up learning more about databases than how to code. My life has been filled with false starts, almost happenings and not quite there yets while trying to learn this skill, which is why I’m fortunate enough to find myself in a position to finally do something about it.

There is an old parable about an old man whose horse ran away, the people in the village lamented “what a tragedy, how sad”, “is it?” he replied. The next day his son found their horse with it’s reins tangled in a tree and next to it a second horse. “How fortunate to find a second horse” the people said, again the old man asked “is it?”. On the third day his son broke his leg while trying to ride the new horse, “how unfortunate for your son to break his leg” they cried, again he responded “is it?”. Then on the fourth day the government came around enlisting all able bodied young men and his son was passed over due to his broken leg. Again the villagers said “how lucky is his broken leg to keep him from going to war” and this time the old man agreed.

There is an idea, a stoic idea, one that may sound sort of woowoo on the surface but one that I find particularly beautiful. The idea that something negative could in fact be a gift if looked at in the right light or a longer time period. My life has felt particularly crappy the last couple of weeks, like everything was falling apart, but that very falling apart was what let me take a chance on something I normally would have ignored. Usually I would say to myself things like “I’m too busy” or “they need me here” This particular slump gave me the freedom to take a leap and today I’m grateful.

My life lately has been me working a graveyard shift at a hotel, averaging about 4 hours of sleep a day and living with the pain of it slowly wearing down in nearly every way. Strength waning, sanity slipping, weight loss stalling, I know in my heart I can’t continue to do this forever. Also the hotel is experiencing a corporate merger, so upper management is on high alert, new rules form everyday and software breaks every night as they patch it to be more compatible with the new parent company, frustrations abound both with management and with the hotel guests, stress is high, people are quitting and with every bit of turnover the stress only builds. Then my best friend felt the need to reject me romantically when I had yet to make a move, and my brother and his wife asked me to find a new place to stay (even though just weeks before were ecstatic about me moving in with them). This was my life lately, and I’m not thrilled about it. So I did what anyone who starts to lose hope would do, I put aside my fear, threw caution to the wind and took one those long shot chances that normally seem so far out there it would be crazy to try. I applied to the 42 School.

For those unfamiliar with it, it’s a highly competitive free coding school paid for by french entrepreneur Xavier Niel. The Wikipedia page is probably the best description of it you can find. I often daydreamed about attending the one in Paris, because well how cool would that be, but I figured even if I did get accepted it would be hard enough learning to code without worrying about language barriers, so instead I applied to the one in Fremont CA.

Somehow I got in, not officially into the program, but into the Piscine (I think it means swimming pool) it’s also known as Intensive Basic Training. Essentially it’s a month long tryout to see if you are up to snuff to do a self directed learning program. It starts Aug 20th (15 days from now). I applied for a dorm spot as well. I’m still not sure if I’ll get the dorm spot, this being a bit short notice after all, but I’ve got enough saved that I could rent an Airbnb for the month if it comes down to it. Financially though I’m not rich, I mean 6 months ago I had no money and now I’ve only got a few thousand saved away, the dorms are free and would be a tremendous help if I could stay there. Time will tell.

I want to do this right, I want to make sure I can pass the Piscine and not spend a month on nothing, to not have quit a job for nothing. So of course I did a bit of research to see what it takes to pass. While looking I found a blog that seems to have detailed day by day their experience with it, so I thought I should do the same (I mean I did previously major in communications, so I know how blogging can help me solidify my knowledge and maybe help someone else down the line). On the whole though I’ve not found much info out there, even the one blog I found was about the one in Paris. So far the best advice I’ve found for passing it is to grit through it the way navy seals grit through their bootcamps, you will get overwhelmed but what matters most is being the type who doesn’t quit or give up. I wish there had been more useful advice out there, but I’ve yet to find it. I’ll post updates with links to what I find later.

Mostly though, I’m excited, I wanted a chance and now I have one. I started in a crappy situation but now I feel liberated by it, free to actually pursue what I’ve been wanting to pursue, had my job been less crappy, my living situation more ideal or my love life actually existing I wouldn’t have taken the chance. This is so much better than if those other things had just turned out the way I initially wanted them to.

So anyway, here’s to the journey, I’ll update as we go.