Let me guess, you had to sign a legal document to attend this hackathon?
Don't Attend a Hackathon
21–30 of 35 posts
Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#22I'd say a lot (most) tech companies are similarly places where "idea people" sometimes known as "business" are having developers implement their ideas. And even though in this case the developers are paid, I'd say same advice applies - it's not a good place to work. Find a place where you are paid to implement your ideas, or ideas you really understand and believe in.
I thought the exact same thing when I read the article. Just because you get paid doesn't mean you should do the work. It is a star in my book though, when someone has managed to convince other people to part with their money before they come asking for people to help with the building. Gives the idea a bit more merit.
I forgot to mention that in some cases developers aren't even paid, i.e. when your compensation is (mostly) equity.
Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#23Let me guess, you had to sign a legal document to attend this hackathon?
(original author here)
No, though I've seen those too: http://caseysoftware.com/blog/ip-agreements-at-hackathons
Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#24This article pretty clearly summarises my thoughts when I see one of those "hiring engineer #1 at startup X" posts.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's execution that matters (at least when you are just starting your business) and to these companies hiring engineers and _actually building something_ seem to be somewhat of an afterthought.
Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#25This isn't limited to hackathons, and to be fair the title is fairly click-baity. I remember seeing a page here on hn listing 1001 great ideas. So if you are out of ideas, then just pick one from there and adapt it to a problem you have identified. There are an endless number of ideas you can come up with that combine some of your domain knowledge with a problem you can identify in your local community. I was just re…
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Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#26Article should be re-titled, "Don't write code for free at a hackathon."
To be fair, the title was a (not-so-subtle) "twist" in that you thought it was going to tell you not to go to hackathons, but it flipped it by saying "Don't attend a hackathon... if you're just looking for devs to implement your ideas". It was telling the "ideas people" to go away, not the devs to avoid them.
Relevant and hilarious: http://whartoniteseekscodemonkey.tumblr.com/
Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#27I have to work for these kinds of "idea people" every day, and all the shifting constraints and scope problems that come with them
Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#28Reminds me of this parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkGMY63FF3Q
Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#29I don't think this is very informed by actually going to hackathons.
A good team project needs a strong vision and someone that coordinates that vision among team members. Its hard to coordinate that vision AND directly contribute at the same time in a compressed time period (I've tried to do that too and its really hard)
There are a lot more people who would want that kind of role than people who would be good at it/able to attract a team for it. But that doesn't mean that that role isn't important for team projects.
Re: Don't Attend a Hackathon
#30Let me guess, you had to sign a legal document to attend this hackathon?
(original author here) No, though I've seen those too: http://caseysoftware.com/blog/ip-agreements-at-hackathons
Nice writeup. If I.P. is even an issue, it should be advice given to them about copyright, NDA's, trade secrets, and patent protection. They should be better equipped to utilize them during and after the hackathon to protect their stuff. I could see maybe a shrink-wrap agreement like what's built into, say, Apache license that just CYA's the host against BS. I can see it because trolls are on the rise in general and might start pulling crap with hackathons. I can also see an explicit agreement by host giving up any claims on the I.P. as an assurance for participants.
Truth told, any startup producing something must absolutely control their intellectual property to achieve best results at deal time. I'd call out any group undermining that as irresponsible or predatory. I'd probably not go soft about it as you did, either. Not critiquing you rather than saying an I.P. transfer agreement at a hackathon is so obviously bad and scheming I'd call them out without hesitation. If they tried, it would be the shortest libel lawsuit ever lol.