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Hackathon Be Gone

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Re: Hackathon Be Gone

#21

Post by caseysoftware »

In Austin, we started running an event called "Finish Up Weekend" or FU Weekend - http://fuweekend.com/ ;)

We have some simple rules:

* you can't start anything new;

* you have to celebrate something being done - usually with a round of applause;

* there are no prizes - only the satisfaction of being done.

While there is plenty of coding, we've had designers finish their portfolios, screenwriters finish pilots, an artist finish his display, and even saw a sewing project completed.

And to top it off, we charge a nominal $20 for the weekend - with 4 meals, a great deal - and sell out every time.

We're putting together a howto doc to franchise the idea.. just need to finish it. ;)

Re: Hackathon Be Gone

#23

Post by wgman »

marssaxman wrote: post #15
wgman wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://mlh.io/seasons/s2016/events Is very popular for promotion.

Are hackathons just a university thing, then...?

By and large. Major League Hacking (the link above) is sort of like the national group "in charge" of hackathons and one of the requirements to be recognized by them is to be a purely under-grad event (though sometimes highschool students are admitted). That said, there are plenty hackathons that aren't sanctioned by MLH and therefore are more open.

It's also possible that my view of hackathons is skewed by the fact that I'm a university student at a school with a very active hackathon culture.

Re: Hackathon Be Gone

#24

Post by manyxcxi »

hoodoof wrote: post #10

I takes me the better part of six months to build something worthwhile. I know I'm a slow programmer but it's still hard to see that anything but trivialities can be built in a weekend.

Doesn't necessarily mean you're slow, it could mean you have a high threshold for worthwhile.

Seriously, I've seen what some people cobbled together in a week long hackfest and been completely unimpressed, having built something similar, and more robust in a day and a half- I did not consider my efforts (or theirs) worthwhile. To be clear, all efforts that you learn from are worthwhile, but I am meaning (and I think what you mean) worthwhile from the standpoint of, getting something production ready or having completed an idea or concept to the point that we can figure out what the heck to do with it.

I think the best things to come out of any hackathon setting are the ideas. The execution that actually occurs should be more of a fleshing out the feasibility and sparking iterative ideas. Anyone walking out of a hackathon thinking they've got actual usable code is just wrong.

Re: Hackathon Be Gone

#25

Post by im_down_w_otp »

I really dislike the corporate hackathon format.

It can be great fun as an informal community gathering of developers to work on random pet projects, but the reality of the corporate hackathon trends toward being company sponsored and promoted technical debt creation.

It often seems like the corporate hackathon is the clearest distillation of the "business" people not understanding how to create a mature, healthy culture and continuous process around engineering autonomy, ownership, and innovation. Instead relying on campy caricatures of basement dwelling Mtn. Dew & pizza fueled "hackers".

Re: Hackathon Be Gone

#26

Post by alexashka »

nxzero wrote: post #12
hoodoof wrote: post #10

I takes me the better part of six months to build something worthwhile. I know I'm a slow programmer but it's still hard to see that anything but trivialities can be built in a weekend.

Point is to get something done, force you to make choice, have a deadline, etc. -- not something else, like production ready code.

The older you get - the less patience you have for tight deadlines and 'forcing yourself to make a choice'.

That's just having more energy than you know what to do with.

The tragedy is young people have lots of energy and are scatterbrained and old people are sometimes wise but too tired.

The future is having older wise folk write out proposals to ambitious projects, and have young people fill in the necessary parts.

Too bad it's just not 'sexy', ambitious projects are long, boring and require upsetting other people who are old, boring and don't want to listen.

Modernizing the medicine field is one simple example of such an ambitious problem.

Re: Hackathon Be Gone

#27

Post by caseysoftware »

caseysoftware wrote: post #21

In Austin, we started running an event called "Finish Up Weekend" or FU Weekend - http://fuweekend.com/ ;) We have some simple rules: * you can't start anything new; * you have to celebrate something being done - usually with a round of applause; * there are no prizes - only the satisfaction of being done. While there is plenty of coding, we've had designers finish their portfolios, screenwriters finish pilots, an ar…

Btw, if you're interested in hosting one, drop me a note. My contact info is in my profile.

Re: Hackathon Be Gone

#29

Post by maxxxxx »

caseysoftware wrote: post #21

In Austin, we started running an event called "Finish Up Weekend" or FU Weekend - http://fuweekend.com/ ;) We have some simple rules: * you can't start anything new; * you have to celebrate something being done - usually with a round of applause; * there are no prizes - only the satisfaction of being done. While there is plenty of coding, we've had designers finish their portfolios, screenwriters finish pilots, an ar…

Great idea!

Re: Hackathon Be Gone

#30

Post by nkozyra »

Anti-hackathon has been in full swing for a few years now, but I think it makes sense to recognize that for some people it has social - and some times professional - benefit.

It's neither inherently good nor bad, it's a chance to create with some new individuals over a short time period. Yes, it gets co-opted by corporate marketing, yes you eat pizza for a day or so. But these are minor issues if you find other benefit like learning of new processes, tools, technologies, etc.

More than anything, it just seems inherently "uncool" at this point, a proverbial pet rock for developers. Which is a shame, there is value there if you're willing to separate the concept from the aesthetic that surrounds the events themselves.

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