

How I Hacked My Way from TC to YC - sayangel
https://medium.com/@sayangel/how-i-hacked-my-way-from-tc-to-yc-73bc719c6792

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JacobAldridge
_" Sometimes I wonder how many things could have gone differently."_

I'm a firm believer that awesome always finds a way, but I love these stories
of seemingly small decisions ( _" I could’ve spent the $500 on something other
than a Rift. I could’ve stayed in bed"_) being major turning points in
someone's life.

For me, a pivotal moment was Stanley Kubrick's removal of _A Clockwork Orange_
from circulation in the 1970s, and its subsequent posthumous re-release in
2000. My university cinema had a showing one night; this gave me time to kill
on campus after the library closed; during which time I saw a job-board ad for
work in a real estate firm.

The job led to a management position post-graduation, which turned into State
Operations Manager for a large franchise group, which turned into the business
coaching career I've had for almost a decade.

If Kubrick hadn't pulled the film? If he had died a year earlier? Maybe I
would have leveraged my journalism degree into that profession instead? From
little things, big things grow...

~~~
jacquesm
Aka the butterfly effect. Similar to your story I got a 20 year gig out of a
bet over a bar of chocolate... It's really funny how these things work.

~~~
GFischer
I was going to ask you to tell the story, but I guessed it was on your blog,
here it is :)

[http://jacquesmattheij.com/content/story-behind-wwcom-
camara...](http://jacquesmattheij.com/content/story-behind-wwcom-camaradescom)

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michaelbuckbee
One gem that stood out to me from the article was the author's take on
hackathons: "The prizes were nice, but the knowledge, soft skills, and
connections were prizes in themselves" \- which seems like the right way of
approaching a hackathon.

~~~
davidw
> the knowledge, soft skills, and connections

To me that kind of points to something I don't like about hackathons: if I
want to really dig deep and hack on something, I don't want to be terribly
social. On the other hand, I have a lot of fun meeting people and talking, and
so on, but at that point, having to go code something is kind of distracting
from the social part.

~~~
binarysolo
The "actual work part" provides the filtering that leaves you with relevant
people so you don't end up in a hackathon with lots of wantrepreneurs.

~~~
davidw
I do actual work in an office during the day, or evenings/weekends at home. If
I want to get actual work done, it's going to be working on something of my
own, not some thing with a random-ish goal, with prizes.

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hanlec
I'm overly impressed with those being able to build a project by the end of a
hackathon. In my life I haven't had many chances to participate to one, but
I'm also the more methodical type (you can call that _over engineering_ and I
wouldn't argue on it).

Any advice on how I could switch to this mode from time to time?

~~~
jewel
I've got a few pieces of advice for you to consider. I'm not sure what will
work for you so I'll hit a few broad areas.

One thing is to make FIXMEs, TODO lists, and otherwise write down the areas
that might need improvement, so that you can mentally dismiss them and focus
on your immediate needs.

When I'm making something new I do "modal programming". Turn off the IDE's
auto-compilation (so that you aren't distracted by syntax errors) and write
large chunks of code in a single go. If you don't know the API for something,
make it up. This is the creative mode.

Once the code is written, switch to the debugging mode. This is where you try
and get the code to actually run. I've found that by separating the two
activities I don't need as much mental effort and it reduces the total amount
of time spent or research required.

Back when I participated in collegiate programming contests we'd prepare for
weeks by drilling on very similar problems so that I/O and syntax wouldn't
trip us up and we could focus on what made the problem unique.

To apply that approach to hackathons, I'd practice the zero-to-prototype step
beforehand until you don't have to do a lot of research in order to get a
minimal working program. For example, if you normally create android apps,
make sure you can get from nothing to a working tic-tac-toe in an hour.

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lewisjoe
It's quiet common, that blog posts from HN leave me behind with a different
perspective of things. In this post, this is what made me so:

"Sometimes I wonder how many things could have gone differently. I could’ve
spent the $500 on something other than a Rift. I could’ve stayed in bed
instead of going to a hackathon. I could’ve worked on another joke app. I
could’ve saved some money and not flown out to Mountain View for a hackathon.
But if my parents taught me anything it’s that you have to take advantage of
every opportunity you get. So I did."

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gfosco
Very happy for Angel and wish him the best for the future.. Keep on hacking!

tl;dr I am a harsh judge at Hackathons, and I think that's what we need.

But on the topic of Hackathons and YC Hacks in particular... I expected YC
Hacks to be more focused on realistic, actual businesses. I was there and the
finalists were mostly disappointing. Vrniture, a cool demo app, is a total
non-starter as a business (and I don't think it was ever intended to be one.)
The number of people who would have 3d maps of their living space is ~0. The
chances of having accurate and well-textured 3d models of sufficient furniture
pieces is ~0%. Apparently just getting on "YCs radar" was the intent, and that
just doesn't sit well with me unless you're at
[http://www.stupidhackathon.com/](http://www.stupidhackathon.com/)

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mkagenius
> I could’ve spent the $500 on something other than a Rift.

Like? :) It is often the case when someone is really awesome, most of their
choices are really good.

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eugeneionesco
>hacked

I don't think that means what you think it means.

~~~
blister
Did you read the article? It largely describes how he went from a small
hackathon to a large hackathon to a YC hackathon to being accepted to YC.

Three distinct "hacks" in a row. Do you object to the word "hack" being used
to describe the work that occurs at a hackathon, or are you just being
argumentative because you prefer a different meaning?

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ztratar
I'm with the original commentary here. Cool -- he upgraded hackathons. I don't
see how that in of itself is "hacking" the system. He didn't break ground or
do anything crazy. I think people are starting to apply this term too
liberally, though I'll admit the complaints (mine included) aren't going to
help.

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CardenB
It's almost like one word can have multiple meanings.

~~~
eugeneionesco
You are right and your comment is interesting!

And by interesting I mean irrelevant, because that's what interesting means to
me.

~~~
sayangel
would be interested in hearing your take on the word "hack"!

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ahitti
Angel is the man!

