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Hackathons are bad for you
21–30 of 128 posts
Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#22Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#23> Working late into the night and not sleeping for days is lauded and almost considered a necessity by many these days.
> And leaving long-term health out of the equation, lack of sleep hasn’t been known to improve your focus or the ability to be logical or creative, all of which are critical skills for developers.
For me personally, I code late at night because it's the only time during the day when I can truly be distraction-free. No incoming emails, no meetings, no phone calls, no running into people. Coding happens best when you can concentrate for long periods of time [1], and the best time to concentrate is when the rest of the world is asleep. YMMV.
Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#24Agreed on food and drink. At least provide healthy options, particularly bottled/filtered water instead of just soft drinks and booze.
Especially agreed on the drinks part.
The organizers of last 2 hackathon I participated seems to think that there is no meaning in providing plain water when they have soft drinks for the event. Not to mention the event was held in a pretty remote event. I had to drive 20 minutes to get a drink that don't make my mouth feels like ant feeds.
Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#25Large-scale Hackathons are the best thing that's ever happened. I've learned new languages/frameworks, tools, platforms, and even learned nearly everything I know about programming at hackathons.
Its hard to find a better environment for learning than one in which you are building something you are passionate about and overcoming obstacles like nobodys business with a hard external deadline and plenty of incentive without having to even worry about getting food/drinks/anything at all.
Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#26Attended one sometime back. What hit me was that they didn't even bother to bring water and they remembered when I needed some. Needless to say there was pizza(and the way it was spread around was "yuck"), there was soft drink and beer and there was no water; neither any fruit or even trace of some healthy food or just food.
Nothing new or innovative came out other than sore backs, necks and a guy puking. Yes, there were some 'nice' hacks like "this guy build this using that hooking into that that API and showing this again".
Midway, I felt like sleeping - there wasn't any space and I was sort of looked down upon with scorn - as in "he doesn't belong here". Well, I didn't. I had built a little web app that did some basic(very) search with Tw/Fb. Nth I would like to see or ponder over again. I slept in a corner anyway(had my sleeping bag).
Bad thing it wasn't fun either.
Moral of the story - it's good for sort of a meet-up, not for 'breaking the ground' with your ideas :-)
And if you have to organize one - make sure there's food, water and some place to rest. Proper lighting which can be adjusted in different corners/parts of the hall(or the large room).
PS. And yes, keep it spacious and airy. Man is a messy animal :-\
Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#27Health isn't everyone's first priority. It certainly shouldn't be viewed as a first priority in every context.
Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#28Alcohol is bad for you. So is going outside and waking up every morning. I enjoy doing these things in moderation though, do we need more nanny stating to tell me what I can enjoy doing?
@_@ how is going outside and waking up every morning bad for you like alcohol?
You can get hit by a car. Or fall from the stairs. Also, air outside is unhealthy in big cities. And then there're the UV rays.
Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#29Health isn't everyone's first priority. It certainly shouldn't be viewed as a first priority in every context.
Yup, which is why those of us that do care about our health just can't wait to maintain the code of those that feel this way after they either die young or end up feeble and unable to maintain themselves much less their projects!
Your brain and whatever else on your body you're currently using to get code from brain to computer are surrounded by a lot things that are important to keep them running and talking to each other. Forget that, and they'll stop. Quickly, and painfully.
Re: Hackathons are bad for you
#30Hackathons to me have almost been about pushing developers to the limits within a 24/36 hour time frame for free, an excuse used by companies to exploit the "hacker" gimmick and keep most of the IP afterwards. Give them some beer, some pizza and energy drinks and make them stare at a screen all night. I often code at night, but I would never code 24 hours straight, let alone 36 hours.
I only ever entered one hackathon and it wasn't as great as some would tell you. The peer pressure you feel to keep going even when you feel like you're going to pass out from exhaustion is immense. Not a great feeling and I wouldn't recommend it, the fun part is overrated.