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Hackathons are nonsense

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Re: Hackathons are nonsense

#51

Post by j-kidd »

davesims wrote: post #21

We just had a very successful hackathon where I work. About 10 separate teams coded basically overnight and the results I think surprised everybody. There was something about the energy and, well, slight insanity of staying up all night just to see if we could deliver a full product in under 20 hours...there was definitely something to it. The demo the next morning, where all the teams showed what they had done was p…

This is exactly what the OP warned against. When the marketing people find out about all these "near products" you guys churned out in a day, say goodbye to sane development schedule.

Re: Hackathons are nonsense

#52

Post by rsobers »

Hackathons aren't necessarily about shipping. To me, they're about having fun with smart people and maybe (or maybe not) producing a seed for a future shipping software product. In the very worst case scenario, maybe you learn something.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen anyone carrying the "Hackathons are how we build software" banner.

Re: Hackathons are nonsense

#53

Post by 16s »

there wrote: post #37
dons wrote: post #31

Starting in 2007 we started holding Haskell hackathons twice a year. They have been absolutely vital for building team cohesion in the sprawling open source efforts, and consistently produce good plans for the work that happens after we leave the event. Project launches also happen at these gatherings. You just have to make sure everyone is engaged, knows each other, and what they're working on. Plan ahead, and arriv…

I've been to an OpenBSD hackathon (which has been doing them since 1999) and I think those and the Haskell hackathons differ from many of these new events that people are calling hackathons. For OpenBSD, the developers are all working as a team on a central project, but usually have sub-projects or tasks related to OpenBSD that they've been working on independently prior to the event. They bring their code to work on…

I've never been to an OpenBSD hackathon, but I've heard good things about them from others. They get a lot done on ports and various projects (PF, OpenSSH, etc) during the hackathons. It seems to be a big part of their culture.

Re: Hackathons are nonsense

#55

Post by dirkdk »

46Bit wrote: post #4
jamesgagan wrote: post #2

As 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.

>This is commonly known as cheating

I agree, I don't like to bring in existing code. Once I saw a friend of mine do (very obviously), still the jury was so impressed that they awarded him $25k in advertising for his bootstrapped startup. That moment I wished I had done the same thing:)

Re: Hackathons are nonsense

#56

Post by thebigshane »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #14

The 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: I…

Watching `notch` live-code is also very popular.

[1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV-AFnCkRLY Making Metagun

[2]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhQ70O1MiXc Making MiniCraft

[3]: http://notch.tumblr.com/

Re: Hackathons are nonsense

#58

Post by drostie »

jarofgreen wrote: post #36
jarofgreen wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do they keep all of the submissions I've never actually been to any hackday where they kept the submissions. The only one I've been to that was really organised by a particular tech company, they obviously tried to get you to use their platform but said you didn't have to (some didn't and it was fine). Is this common?

Just to clarify, I've seen lots of hackdays organised by platform providers so they let you keep the end result and they still benefited because their platform got traction/apps/focus/whatever but never one where they actually take your work off you.

Thanks for that, it makes the original statement "...if a participant creates a blockbuster app that the company can market" much more clear: it's not a marketing gimmick for the app but some marketing gimmick for a platform for designing apps, which the company happens to be selling.

At the same time, it confuses me even more, because I'm surprised that this works as a marketing tactic. ^_^;;

Re: Hackathons are nonsense

#60

Post by aaronblohowiak »

Alind wrote: post #33
nhashem wrote: post #10

I disagree. Hackathons are sprints, and just like have the occasional sprint workout can be a great way to augment your distance running routine, hackathons can be great for augmenting your software development routine. Here are some reasons why I like taking part in a hackathon event (assuming the goal is to produce some sort of web application): - Tradeoffs are easy. You have no time for bells or whistles. You cons…

as a regular long run runner and coder, I totally agree with you. For training, not only building base is important, if you wanna achieve a good pace during marathon, running fast like a blast is part of it. More detailed, we basically have 4 phases for training. 1)acclimatizing phase, 2)building-up phase, 3)overall preparation phase, and 4)special preparation phase. Hacktons are more like phase 4, not so accurate an…

Hackathons are more like fartleks, no?
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