Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I hate Hackathons

pgpt.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 70 posts

Re: I hate Hackathons

#11

Post by armchairhacker »

IME with hackathons, they are kind of like a hibachi grill. The first and second hackathon was really exciting, then it wore down as I realized most of the products were fancy ML / crypto presentations without much substance, the "competition" was broken (because those ML / crypto projects always won even vs some genuinely original and creative ideas), and you can't really build something interesting in a couple days (unless maybe you have a one-in-a-million eureka moment). There are exceptions: if you have a particularly great idea, or if the hackathon has a particularly great social experience. But 24-48 hours is simultaneously too much and not enough time, and trying to build a commercially-viable product in 24/48 hours of crunch while also spending 24/48 hours partying is often not actually that fun or productive.

The "Internal Corporate Hackathons" the author hates though...these are something else. These are not hackathons:

> ...the Management has already decided what you'll build. They give you a pre-selected pool of ideas to give you an illusion of choice. Then, they expect you to have their experimental projects fully built in just one day. Also, participation is "encouraged"...

> “My company just sent out an email about Hackathon where you spend two weeks crunching to solve complex problems for the company. Followed by a two week Hackathon where we're supposed to test/bugfix the software built during the Hackathon.....”

Re: I hate Hackathons

#12

Post by chefandy »

thrdbndndn wrote: post #8
chefandy wrote: post #4

Also see "game jams."

I dunno, game jams often produce great ideas that later can be (and historically have been) expanded to good full game.

Hackathons also create great ideas that later turn into fully-fledged projects. Game dev is just programming + art/design which is somehow something people feel entitled to for free even more than programming by itself.

Re: I hate Hackathons

#13

Post by donkeyd »

vladmk wrote: post #6

Very true - few people who won hackathons went on to achieve big things because its a marathon not a 48 hour race. If they did 1 to 2 week competitions I'd be more interested

> few people who won hackathons went on to achieve big things because its a marathon not a 48 hour race

It's not just that. It's also because hackathons often favor the flashy over the feasible.

The one time I joined a hackathon, we came up with a solution that was low tech, cheap and easy to implement and added an analysis of the potential cost benefits. The winners said 'add a GPS beacon to everything and track it that way'. Which wasn't at all feasible, but it did sound cool and their demo looked cool.

I'm not surprised we didn't win, but the fact we lost from a flashy demo that would never be implemented was disappointing. Especially because it was an explicit requirement to be feasible.

Re: I hate Hackathons

#14

Post by smelendez »

When I used to do more data viz and front end work, I went to a few hackathons that went well where they prebuilt teams for basically storytelling projects. Tribeca Film Institute did a couple of great ones, including one at CERN where they made teams that each had a scientist looking to share their work in innovative ways working with artists, designers and coders. POV, which is a PBS-affiliated documentary project, did a hackathon series where coders and interaction designers worked with documentary makers who had an idea for an online or app component to their documentary.

Nobody got paid much, but the projects were well scoped and I think most people had positive experiences. The output generally actually got published. I think a key was that the products were generally standalone static web apps that didn’t need long term support.

In those cases I’m thinking of, I think it helped a lot that the “clients” were scientists or film directors: two professions that are quite used to running projects that rely on other skilled people translating their vision using tools they themselves can’t use as effectively.

I agree that bad hackathons are just undercompensated sprints toward arbitrary deadlines with a manager awkwardly sitting next to you at a cafeteria table.

Re: I hate Hackathons

#15

Post by thrdbndndn »

chefandy wrote: post #12
thrdbndndn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, game jams often produce great ideas that later can be (and historically have been) expanded to good full game.

Hackathons also create great ideas that later turn into fully-fledged projects. Game dev is just programming + art/design which is somehow something people feel entitled to for free even more than programming by itself.

To me there is a distinction.

Creating games is a more creative activity than programming (especially for programming in a hackathon).

Game jams is more similar to an essay competition than a hackathon, IMHO.

Re: I hate Hackathons

#16

Post by sidcool »

I feel hackathons should not have constrained problem statements but mostly open. It can have open source contributions or any tool/product devs want to build. And principal/staff engineers should code along with junior devs. I can be fun once in a while. And if possible, it should be done at a different location, not in office.

Re: I hate Hackathons

#17

Post by bawolff »

lopis wrote: post #5
barbariangrunge wrote: post #2

I’m tired of hating. Let’s all be chill and like something

Better title: "How I personally think hackathons can be done right" but that's really not as catchy. Hate and outrage drives clicks.

I dont really think that accurately summarizes the article. The article doesn't really suggest improvements, just talk about things the author dislikes.

I personally don't think there is anything wrong with that. Can't find solutions if you don't understand the problem.

Re: I hate Hackathons

#18

Post by The_Colonel »

I work in a company which does hackatons without any goals. You can do something cool on the product, or you can attend some course or if you really want, you can keep working on features (there's no pressure to do so). It's essentially just 4 weeks in a year when you're free to choose your work. There are also some small prizes which for me do nothing, but for somebody might bring extra motivation.

I think it's great in non-obvious ways. People often choose to improve product in small ways which would be otherwise hard to justify to prioritize in the product backlog. Small quality of life (either user or developer) improvements, platforms improvements, refactorings, optimizations of the CI jobs etc.

Hackatons are often marketed as something for the employees to enjoy, perhaps for the organization to be healthy, to produce new ideas, but I also see tremendous value for the long term technical health of the product as well.

Re: I hate Hackathons

#19

Post by jhatemyjob »

chefandy wrote: post #12
thrdbndndn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, game jams often produce great ideas that later can be (and historically have been) expanded to good full game.

Hackathons also create great ideas that later turn into fully-fledged projects. Game dev is just programming + art/design which is somehow something people feel entitled to for free even more than programming by itself.

Because art/design is fun
Post reply on HN