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I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

ryanleecarson.tumblr.com

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Re: I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

#41

Post by njharman »

reledi wrote: post #17
mmphosis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda like this... Dear Hackers, Here is the challenge: Please create the next killer app, and give all the rights to me so I can take all of your work and make a bundle of cash. I know you like building things, and I like making money. Seems like a good arrangement to me. I might even throw in a free T-shirt.

You've been going to the wrong hackathons then. If you look hard enough you'll find some where you don't need to sign anything, and if you can't find any, start planning one.

And that is what this post is about. Looking hard enough.

Re: I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

#43

Post by Flimm »

I just went to my first hackathon this weekend, and I quite enjoyed it. Doing a week-end project is much more fun in groups, and there is a final presentation to enjoy and aim for. For this particular hackathon, we had sponsors who offered us free food and five prizes of 2000 pounds each. Considering they were only twenty teams, that's really not bad.

Re: I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

#44

Post by why-el »

I have never been to a hackathon, but I do find the conditions of some of them a little strange. Why not provide normal work (call them fun if you want) hours for participants, say 8 hours distributed over three to four days? If your concern is people using the spare hours to work more on their products, well then great, make that part of the rules. In this case they will get three 8 hours shifts with all the support you can provide as an organizer, and the rest of the day they are on their own (StackOverflowing, real life feedback..). I can't help but notice that one of the reasons the author is complaining can be traced back to this let's-code-all-night type of deal. If only they can make that optional.

Re: I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

#45

Post by geraldalewis »

ryancarson wrote: post #37
olivercameron wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just not entirely sure how someone can be taken advantage of at a hackathon. Are you implying that someone will steal their product? Or that they'll somehow be convinced to give up a large % stake in their project by someone who can't code? Again, an example of a hackathon where this has happened would be great. Besmirching the name of hackathons in general is wrong. As for hacker mansions, the post you linked to…

You can be taken advantage of simply by participating. Hackathons that are tacked on to events are a great example: they're simply a way to sell more tickets. I've been guilty of this in the past on shows we've done (Twitter's Chirp conf, etc). Can good things happen at these hackathons? You bet. That doesn't mean Developers shouldn't be careful though. As for "20-hour days", that's just a number you've thrown out. W…

> they're simply a way to sell more tickets.

That doesn't sound like taking advantage; that sounds like quid pro quo. Developers are buying tickets to attend a hackathon.

Re: I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

#46

Post by alecco »

Heard at ISOJ 2012: "Making software is easy. It's the journalism that's hard" (13th International Symposium on Online Journalism)

I can only speak of the Buenos Aires startup scene. It's even worse than OP states. For example, this weekend an organization called "Palermo Valley" (claims to be non-profit but runs on a .com) organized a "Geeks on a Plane" meetup. If you see the about us pages and speakers it's full of marketroids, SEO "experts", journalists and douchy business types. A hacker friend was there and reports: "I just went to a palermovalley meetup and it was crawling with nontechnical people and too loud to talk".

There was another conference-meetup oriented to startups recently, but not for programmers. One of the talks was about how to handle the "monkeys". It was basically how to manipulate and find ways to make junior programmers work overtime for free, and pay them less by giving away token gifts. And of course never hire people over 24 or "too experienced".

Make sure you get paid fairly for every hour of your work. They need us more than we need them.

Re: I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

#47

Post by jefflinwood »

I disagree with this - I've been to several hackathons/API hack days, and like anything I guess you could be exploited, but I don't really see it.

What's nice is not only did I get to focus on building one thing straight out from start to finish in the alloted time, but it's mine - I get to commercialize it, market it, etc.

I definitely wasn't exploited - for all three of the ones where I've won a prize, I was the driving force/sole developer/whatever, so there wasn't some evil "business guy" getting me to work for free :) For Startup Weekend, I pitched, no one wanted to build what I wanted to build, so I joined another team. No big deal.

One of the best ones I went to was simply a "you hack all night on your own thing, no distractions, we're just keeping the lights on and ordering pizza." I think it might have cost $10 for the space.

Re: I’m tired of the opportunists and their hackathons

#48

Post by drumdance »

ryancarson wrote: post #31
olivercameron wrote: post #23

I'm not entirely sure what hackathons Ryan Carson has been to, but this post is seriously misguided. Developers don't go to hackathons to be "code monkeys", rather they go to build something cool in a fun environment. It's often a great break outside of the day job to build something they would otherwise not have the motivation to. No one is stealing their concept or forcing them to take it further, it's just fun. As…

I agree with you on the reason Developers go to hackathons. That's why they're so likely to be taken advantage of. I'm simply saying that the young developer community needs to be wary. Regarding "hacker mansions" a cursory read of this job posting should reveal what I'm referring to: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3961037 It's clearly written by someone who thinks they can throw material things at a Developer a…

I think it's about expectations. I would never sign up for the project you linked to, but that's because I'm a 40-something serial entrepreneur. OTOH if I were a college CS major I would seriously consider it.

My biggest regret career-wise is that as a young coder I never got a chance to work on cool projects and find mentors. I had to create those projects on my own without much guidance.

The company running that ad should realize they will likely attract developers who are pretty green. If so, no harm no foul. If they expect an experienced rock star to show up, they are delusional.

An inexperienced rock star might show up, but they should treat that as a happy accident.

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