Know the Lore: Why 42 & Where Does it Come From?

“Ok, this is a cool school and model, but why is it called 42? It is a weird name for an IT school, isn’t it?” Anyone working for 42 or one of its campuses will have heard these remarks. And to be fair, that is reassuring. “42” is certainly not a common name for a school, and beyond the name itself, the school comes with an incredibly rich lore and insider lingo that could have scared off decoding genius Alan Turing himself. So why 42, and where does this lore come from? A few explanations.

A Foundational Work, From Which Everything is Derived

Before we dive deeper into 42’s lore, it is necessary to understand the basics of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG), as 42 draws a lot of its lore directly from that work. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy started out as a BBC radio comedy in 1978 before being expanded into a series of novels, starting with the 1979 book of the same name. It follows Arthur Dent, an ordinary Englishman who is rescued from Earth’s sudden demolition (to make way for a hyperspace bypass) by his friend Ford Prefect, who turns out to be an alien researcher for a wildly popular electronic travel guide called “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Together they bounce across the galaxy encountering eccentric characters like the two-headed ex-President of the Galaxy Zaphod Beeblebrox, the depressed robot Marvin, and the humans Trillian and Ford, all while unraveling a cosmic joke involving supercomputers. The series is famous for its typically British absurdist humor, its satire of bureaucracy and human folly, and its blend of hard science fiction concepts with utterly silly asides. 

THE Answer

Central to 42’s mission is addressing some of the world’s current education problems: making IT education more accessible, challenging the shortcomings of traditional education models that still leave too many people behind, and proposing an alternative pathway to success. 

Why is that relevant? Central to The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy is the supercomputer Big Thought’s answer to the ultimate question on life, the universe and everything. When humans ask for that answer, Big Thought computes for 7.5 million years to simply respond “42.” 

Given this perfect match between the reference and 42’s mission, combined with the 42’s teams desire to create a distinctive lore that would reflect the school’s “out of the ordinary” positioning and approach, it was no surprise that 42soon adopted The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s universe as its own. While in the book, 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything, in real life, 42 seeks to be the answer to the world’s needs in IT education.

Mural artwork on the 42 Prague campus.

Beyond the Name

Beyond the name itself, 42 has incorporated references to other elements of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy into various aspects of daily life at the school. First and foremost, the towel has become one of the school’s symbols, with Towel Day celebrated each year on May 25th. Moreover, many 42 campuses have adopted HHGTTG-themed decors, some even naming their rooms after places and characters from the book’s universe. Marvins, Vogons, spaceships… All of these symbols adorn 42 campuses everywhere in the world. 

The most extreme example perhaps came in 2014, one year after the launch of the 42 Paris campus, when construction began on a tram line extension across the street from 42 Paris. When it became clear that a tram stop would be located just in front of the campus, the 42 Paris’s staff reached out to the then Mayor of Paris and campaigned for the stop to be named Douglas Adams. While the effort was ultimately unsuccessful, it remains a testament to how far 42’s community was willing to go to uphold the lore.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

The 42 Paris campus and the “Douglas Adams” (not) tram station. (c) AR STUDIO