It’s somehow been another six months since the last time I opened this site.
This time, because I felt very uneasy about my BH days,
I signed up for Lifesaver again.
In reality, it’s not at a dangerous level.
But I’m just the kind of person who easily feels anxious (a cautious hero).
Looking back at what I wrote half a year ago makes me feel a bit embarrassed.
That kind of awkward writing is actually something I don’t want others to see.
But unexpectedly, I received a few comments, and that still made me very happy.
Is this a contradictory feeling?
It was originally just for self-recording, yet it unexpectedly created connections.
Half a year has passed.
Right now, I am still two miles away from completing the Common Core.
One exam and one team project.
During this time, the 42 campus went through a major overhaul on “Day X.”
The current assignments seem to be quite different from what I experienced.
I’ve considered whether I even need to write the second part of my Common Core reflections.
But for me, writing reflections is for recording, not for sharing information.
I’ll properly look back on it the day I truly finish the curriculum.
Regarding this second round of Lifesaver,
I personally feel that compared to the first time,
I’ve become a bit more “gentle.”
During the first round, every time I did a review, I prepared a lot of materials.
I wanted to explain every single point clearly.
In the end, it made the whole process take a lot of time.
Honestly, I think that was too exhausting for both sides.
This time, in the second round, I try to keep it around one hour.
As for the content, it depends on the participant’s level.
If they understand, I expand more.
If they don’t, I prioritize clarifying the basics.
If the submitted code is more perfect, then the questions I give will be harder.
Also, I feel that my mindset has changed.
During the first round, I thought I was a senior.
I felt that I should act like one.
I believed I had to show that I knew a lot.
But this time, I feel that even if people think I’m a bit dumb or clumsy, it’s fine.
Maybe I’ve become more willing to face myself honestly.
If I know something, I know it; if I don’t, I’ll learn together with the Piscine students.
If others really think I’m dumb or clumsy,
isn’t that actually a good thing?
If someone like me can persist, then you definitely can too.
I’ve heard that recently there have been more interpersonal conflicts in the Piscine.
Some people have even left because of it.
From my perspective,
no matter the reason for joining or leaving,
as long as you’ve thought it through carefully,
it’s a good choice.
Just like my reason for joining the Piscine was also very “boring.”
Because it’s free!
I don’t think 42 is suitable for everyone.
Just as I said in my previous reflection,
I think Piscine is a two-way test.
42 judges whether you can be admitted,
and you judge whether 42 suits you.
As for interpersonal relationships,
I think it’s a lifelong subject.
In fact, on this campus,
I’ve also had several uncomfortable interpersonal experiences.
For example, someone told me, “You’re so bad, why are you here?”
Or someone said, “How do you still not understand this?”
Or someone would immediately turn around and walk away when they saw me at school.
Or someone would be smiling one second, but suddenly show a cold face when they saw me.
It’s not because I don’t care or because I’m strong.
In fact, I care a lot, otherwise I wouldn’t still remember it after so long.
I’m actually not strong at all.
I can’t even say that if I were 18,
I would still be able to stay here after experiencing these things.
But now I feel that
I came to 42 because I can learn programming here for free.
I came here because I like programming.
Although the system here includes team projects and peer reviews, so I have to interact with others,
if out of 100 people, 10% are people I dislike or who dislike me,
then I just need to focus my energy on the other 90%.
Even though review partners are assigned by the system and I can’t choose them,
if I encounter such situations,
I can just keep interactions to the minimum necessary level.
In fact, I’ve never felt uncomfortable because of the “content” of a review.
If the evaluation is strict, I just think that I didn’t consider things thoroughly enough.
And in fact, 42
although it is not a traditional school,
it is still more like a school than a workplace.
What does that mean?
It means it is not a zero-sum competition.
Other people’s excellence does not cancel out my efforts.
You can achieve good results,
and so can I.
Moreover, compared to traditional schools, 42 has something even better.
Time can be arranged freely.
Learning progress can be arranged freely.
In traditional schools, everyone has to sit in the same classroom at the same time.
I understand the pain of being forced to share the same air with people you dislike.
Here, there is no such arrangement.
Everything is self-scheduled.
Everyone can progress at their own pace.
Outside of school,
in most workplaces, you also cannot choose the people you deal with.
While choosing a comfortable environment is important,
how to filter out uncomfortable voices and focus on what you want
is something you will have to face sooner or later.
Earlier, I mentioned liking programming.
Recently, I’ve had a new realization.
If learning programming is viewed as a way to find a job,
the emergence of AI may disrupt that path.
But if programming is something you do because it’s fun,
then AI is truly a great thing.
Now, when I have a new idea,
AI helps me realize it faster.
And because I’ve learned programming,
I know I can do it and I know how to proceed.
AI just accelerates the process.
Although many people say that even those without programming experience can easily build things with AI now,
that might be true, but I’m not sure.
Could someone like me, who has never learned music theory or instruments, create a song with AI?
I don’t know, I’m not confident, and I’m not interested in exploring it right now.
I wouldn’t even know what the first step is.
But when it comes to programming, I do.
For example, I recently built a small butler-like chat bot.
It sends messages to a group to tell everyone in my family what trash needs to be taken out tomorrow.
It also sends messages to tell everyone what each person needs to do today.
Although something this simple could probably be done by a calendar app or service,
or maybe even Google Calendar,
precisely because it is so simple,
I don’t want to give my schedule to Google (for example).
I don’t want to download another app just for notifications.
I don’t want to spend time searching for such a service.
I don’t want to press a bunch of buttons just to set one thing.
I just want to type one sentence in the messaging app we already use,
like “On X month X day I will do something,”
and on that day, it will remind everyone in the group.
The group already exists, and the messaging app is already in use.
No one needs to download or configure anything extra,
and no one has to change their habits.
(Eliminating all “I told you!” and “I forgot!” situations ☺︎)
For example, because I wanted to play Othello with my roommate,
I built an Othello game.
I can freely decide what interface I want.
Since my phone is a small-screen iPhone SE,
I want everything I need to see to fit on that screen.
Because our house has two floors,
and my roommate is often on a different floor and delays making moves,
I added a countdown timer.
If time runs out, you lose.
I also designed a reaction button
to send my anger.
For example, recently I also made an AI nutritionist chat bot as a toy.
Now I take photos of everything I eat and send them to it.
It analyzes calories, protein, and so on.
It summarizes my nutrition for the entire day
and tells me what I should eat more of tomorrow.
I call it a toy because I’m not actually weighing anything,
so I don’t think the data is very accurate.
It’s just a fun toy.
These are all small projects that came from my personal needs.
So when I was thinking about whether to share the Othello URL with others, I hesitated for quite a while.
I didn’t think it was a large-scale project,
and it might not be very valuable to others.
But in the end, I decided to share it anyway.
My starting point wasn’t to show off my technical skills,
but simply because it was something I needed, so I built it.
During the process, I also got a chance to review the concepts from the assignments.
There were many blind spots that I wouldn’t have noticed without actually doing it.
At the same time, I’m grateful for the resources from 42 that made all of this possible
(GitHub Student Developer Pack).
Othello is here:
https://lchuang.me
(If it stops working someday, it’s because the student pack expired!)
Resources used:
GitHub Student Developer Pack (1-year duration!)
(DigitalOcean, Namecheap, Copilot)
Returning from being a working adult to being a student again
has made me feel even more how valuable resources are.
It has also helped me better clarify my priorities.
I hope I can successfully finish the last two miles.