
My Love and Hate Relationship with Hackathons - hieutnguyen
https://www.devsurvival.com/my-love-and-hate-relationship-with-hackathons/
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marcus_holmes
My love/hate thing with hackathons is how it gives non-coders the idea that
you can put together a product in a weekend.

There's a vast difference between hackathon code designed to maybe last for an
hour during a demo (with no security or privacy concerns) and production code
that can actually support a business model. And it's not just "so... that'll
take twice as long to make?". Turning a weekend hackathon demo into an actual
production code base can take weeks or months.

But explaining that to a non-coder is really difficult. Hackathons set
expectations so high.

~~~
gurkendoktor
My experience with professional software development looks like this, in a
loop:

Let's add a new button! How many story points is the button? (Insert 2-hour
discussion about what a story point is) Okay, "Uncle Bob says" we need at
least seven layers of code around it. Someone insists on doing it "TDD", even
though the UI framework is not testable. Oops, the Agile Consultant broke
Jira, it will be back up in two days. The PR gets stuck for days because of
trailing whitespace violations. The button doesn't actually work, but the
outsourced developer complains loudly until someone gives in and merges it.
Review time!

The code that results from this madness is not better than Hackathon code,
just bad in a different way. If anything, my last Hackathon has made me aware
of how much I want to work for an effective company at some point in my life,
so I guess it was worthwhile.

~~~
marcus_holmes
Totally agree that half the fun of hackathons is throwing away all that shit
and just fucking building something :)

But I never have to go back to hackathon code 3 months later and fix it.
Bitter experience has taught me that at least some of that stuff (like the
unit tests) is not optional if I want to stay sane.

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arexxbifs
I encourage anyone who enjoys coding together with friends in a competitive
setting to check out the demo scene. Demo parties predate hackathons, but they
are somewhat alike, except on demo parties you also get to drink beer and no
boring corporate guy from marketing will come and steal your ideas after
you've won.

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sitver
I find the time constraint to be a strength (used to do these in college - won
some prizes, sometimes didn’t finish in time). It’s a beautiful thing to work
on an ambitious thing against a clock, knowing that if you fail you can walk
away. The ticking clock forces you to put your ego and perfectionism aside and
ask questions of the interesting people around you.

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wrnr
A hackaton can be a fun excuse to experiment with random, but when I learned
about the pan european hackaton against the corona virus organised by the EU
commission I didn't know if I should to laugh or cry. Its like children
playing doctor:

[https://euvsvirus.org/](https://euvsvirus.org/)

~~~
bryanrasmussen
Institutionalized Engineer's syndrome, to be fair however doctors have their
own version of the syndrome so it's fair.

on edit: evidently I really like to be fair.

~~~
detaro
It's also not like there are no problems outside medicine caused by the
current situation. A hackathon won't solve those either, but can provide
exactly the mentioned space to experiment and communicate can be the starting
point for larger projects. I think the big recent ones didn't do a
particularly good job at pointing people in the right direction though, so
there's been a lot of projects that indeed seem questionable.

I.e. the platform that sprung up that crowdsources which stores etc closed and
which didn't doesn't heal people, but has been quite helpful to find something
I needed urgently. The grassroots effort that filled gaps in the PPE supply by
scaling from a few hackerspaces doing 3D printed faceshield holders to
organizing companies and community spaces to get parts injection-molded,
material distributed, and shields assembled in the thousands is exactly about
finding and connecting people with the right skills and resources. etc...

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bdcravens
Aren't most of your "hates" about hackathons related to in-person hackathons,
yet earlier in the article you say you just attended your first, which was an
online hackathon? (which of-course they all are these days) I'm a bit puzzled
at how you can hate elements of in-person hackathons if you've never attended
one.

~~~
sk0g
Maybe he hates the idea or experiences he's heard of, for in-person ones
enough to never give it a shot. Which kinda detracts from the article's
legitimacy, IMO.

I went to one with a few friends and it was pretty fun, if exhausting. Almost
like not all hackathons are the exact same thing.

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redis_mlc
It's important to distinguish between the different hackathons.

There's corporate, VC, meetup, etc.

I would read the fine print very carefully before signing on for a corporate
or VC-sponsored hackathon.

~~~
lnsru
This! I participated at couple hackathons and solved the challenges of the
sponsors. Basically free idea generation for corporations. Low networking
value, only innovation managers and HR for graduate recruitment. Afterwards I
got invitations to hackathons where I must even pay for participation. Thank
you, but no!

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mamouri
I can relate. A few years ago, I wrote this piece: Why hackathons are for
wankers! Or how to hack a hackathon? [1]

[1] [https://medium.com/@mispronounced/why-hackathons-are-for-
wan...](https://medium.com/@mispronounced/why-hackathons-are-for-wankers-or-
how-to-hack-a-hackathon-972d0d825d2a)

~~~
michaelscott2
> I wrote this piece: Why hackathons are for wankers!

Do you know the meaning of a wanker?

~~~
mamouri
Yes. It is meant to be taken as satire. I have contributed in a few myself.

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werber
I’ve done my fair share of hackathons, and to me it was a fun social thing.
Like a rave for nerds, but, like spending the weekend in a sweaty factory
staying up all night, you’re not going to make great choices and they take it
out of you. But, if you’re young it’s really damn fun.

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detaro
In recent years most things calling themselves "Hackathon" sadly seem to
emphasize the competition aspect. You quickly find teams, it's important to be
really productive in the short time, theres big prizes for the winners, and
the sponsor wants something in exchange. I tend to prefer ones that are more
relaxed and cooperative. Often calling themselves "hackdays" instead?

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EdwardDiego
OP, if you're reading this, just some feedback that on mobile I found it hard
to read due to how much real estate the header and banner take up. Screenshot:

[https://imgur.com/a/eNKtBsm](https://imgur.com/a/eNKtBsm)

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xllaa
Original idea:

"OpenBSD's apparent first use of the term referred to a cryptographic
development event held in Calgary on June 4, 1999."

In the current corporate "open" source world the term has been stolen and is
little more than a marketing buzzword.

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Chris2048
IMHO hackathons' should have _lot_ of constrains, and maybe even a few
prep/tutorial docs to get everyone up to speed beforehand. Otherwise the scope
is too huge, and everyone just codes as they would at home anyway.

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codegladiator
His points in "What I don’t like about Hackathons" are frankly why I like
hackathons (time constraint, a lot of people in same mindset, a lot of
socializing)

I really miss the yahoo openhack.

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Brosper
Totally agree, I was on 4 hackatons and after first one it's all about
competition. Only first hackaton was for fun.

On last one it was nightmare for me. I felt pain in my body everywhere.

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cable2600
Michael David Crawford protested a Hacker Dojo event by calling the fire
department and pulling the overloaded traps the computers were hooked up to.
He claimed nothing would ever come of the projects being developed and that
they are using the hackers to get ideas.

The whole point of a hackathon is to have hackers meet VC people.

~~~
redis_mlc
Death notice for Michael David Crawford:

[https://soylentnews.org/meta/article.pl?sid=19/03/26/0356205](https://soylentnews.org/meta/article.pl?sid=19/03/26/0356205)

Although it's not a good idea to overload electrical circuits, he said he had
serious mental issues.

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peignoir
Good ideas, would love to try to organize an introvert and healthy hackhaton
...

