I definitely think good software can be made in 24 hours but sure, if you're trying to build Skynet in a Hackathon it will probably not be very good.
Hackathons are nonsense
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Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#12As well, I'm pretty sure a lot of the "hacks" you see come out of hackathons are actually projects that were well underway before the event.
This is commonly known as cheating. I'm fairly confident it doesn't happen very much.
Surely, it's hard to draw the line, what if you've written a similar thing before? or spent weeks coding in your head before hand?
Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#13I don't thing hackathons are for building a software that will be shipping right away. I think the objective of hackatons is to do quick experimentations, be as creative as you can and see if something interesting and new comes out of it in a few hours.
If something doesn't exist you don't even know if it's possible to accomplish. In a normal working schedule it would be very difficult for you to get time to work on something nobody-knows-if-it-will-work-or-not. Besides, your boss will not be very happy if you 'waste' time on that.
So the goal of hackatons, in my opinion, is to spend some time to travel on uncharted seas...you may find nothing...you may discover America. But you have only discovered it, not conquered it...that will take more time :)
Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#14The point of hackathons is also the reason why this quote:
there will never be a Julia Child of software
rings false. Julia Child would cook stuff in front of you on TV so that you could watch how a real cook uses her tools, and hear the cook talk a bit about how she approaches her work.
Obviously the point isn't to taste the food - it's on TV. And obviously the TV show barely scratches the surface of Julia's work: It took her years of practice, apprenticeship with knowledgeable teachers, hundreds of tests of recipes, and so forth. But just because watching Julia can never be the same as being a chef doesn't mean her shows aren't useful.
The point of a hackathon is to get an up-close look at other people in your craft using their most familiar industrial-strength tools and techniques to build something a bit bigger than an academic example. Just shoulder-surfing a programmer using their tools well can be inspiring: Look at what DHH did for Textmate.
Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#15There's a pretty wide range of hackathons, I think. Focused ones where you go start-to-end on a project in 24 or 48 hours are one specific kind. Others are looser, more like dev parties, sort of like gaming LAN parties but not focused on gaming. Some people at an event like SuperHappyDevHouse (http://superhappydevhouse.org) treat it like a coding sprint, but others work more leisurely on long-term side projects, observe what other people are doing, chat about new technologies, find a few people with similar interests and work their way through a tutorial, etc. Lots of ways to approach it as a concept and social setting.
Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#16Looks like Dave Winer got full of shit... So sad.
Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#17Hackathons are primarily a way for companies to more easily identify good developer hire candidates, and likewise, for developers to make new connections and promote themselves. Everything else is a shared lie and/or a distand second in importance.
Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#18Hackathons are not meant to make production ready code, or even "elegant" code. It is meant to be a hack - a project where decisions are made in favor of speed or elegance.
Hackathons don't generate code ready to ship, but that does not make it nonsense. They are meant to create "sketches" of programs. Sketches are created to convey an idea, and solidify the imagination. They are not the end product themselves or are they the basis for the end product. They are instead an aid. Similarly, whenever I hack and decide that I actually want to pursue the project, I start from scratch. The hack helps refine the design and architecture of the project much more than simply thinking about the project.
disclosure: I'm an officer of the Hackers@Berkeley club in UC Berkeley. From what I've seen, hackathons are when students really step out of their comfort zones and learn new skills to create innovative projects. Great things have come out of them. Once in a while, those hacks even become the sketches for new startups.
Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#19Hackathons are not meant to make production ready code, or even "elegant" code. It is meant to be a hack - a project where decisions are made in favor of speed or elegance.
Hackathons don't generate code ready to ship, but that does not make it nonsense. They are meant to create "sketches" of programs. Sketches are created to convey an idea, and solidify the imagination. They are not the end product themselves or are they the basis for the end product. They are instead an aid. Similarly, whenever I hack and decide that I actually want to pursue the project, I start from scratch. The hack helps refine the design and architecture of the project much more than simply thinking about the project.
disclosure: I'm an officer of the Hackers@Berkeley club in UC Berkeley. From what I've seen, hackathons are when students really step out of their comfort zones and learn new skills to create innovative projects. Great things have come out of them. Once in a while, those hacks even become the sketches for new startups.
Re: Hackathons are nonsense
#20Hackathons have an "inspirational" value. By forcing an artificial constraint they demonstrate to participants how much they can do in a single determined sprint.
There may be little further connection to what it takes to make good software (let alone a good business), but there is value in realizing that something of utility can be built under time and money constraints.
It is kind of silly, though, how many of those are popping up, and how they are turning into competitive formats. And I'm sure some people misunderstand the point of the idea. So what? That's true for many things and it doesn't make them worthless on its own.