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Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

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Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#61

Post by tharne »

jjoonathan wrote: post #50
999900000999 wrote: post #46

The last so-called hackathon I went to involved a bunch of idea guys sitting in a room talking about how cool their ideas were. One of these assholes had me make a prototype for him, he quickly dismissed it as not good enough. Like I did it for free man, can you at least try to say thank you. I will say I do enjoy game jams, at least then we have something fun to play. I have no interest in prototyping an app for som…

> One of these assholes had me make a prototype for him, he quickly dismissed it as not good enough. Idea guys in a nutshell.

At this point in my life whether it be at work or a social event, the minute someone describes themselves as an "idea guy", I run like hell.

There is no red flag like the "idea guy".

Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#62

Post by sbarre »

mohanmcgeek wrote: post #58
sbarre wrote: post #37

We've restarted doing 2-day hackathons at my work, and in the spirit of being as inclusive as possible for all team members, we don't require teams to submit code at the end. Some still do though, but in the end we want teams to play to their individual strengths and deliver anything they want that fits the theme. We do pick themes that are relevant to the business, but there are no other requirements, and we do it o…

A success of a hackathon isn't determined by participation rate but by the number of prototypes your usual roadmap wouldn't have produced. These pitchathons and deck-athons don't really need 2 days to make.

Hey! Thanks for telling me what my hackathon should and should not be.

Ultimately we do them as team building exercises, and so _our_ measure of success is about team engagement, participation and the enjoyment of the participants.

Certain ideas absolutely inspire further work on our real roadmaps but that's never the goal.

And so on our metrics, they are a success. But thanks for the feedback.

Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#63

Post by sbarre »

ketzo wrote: post #40
sbarre wrote: post #37

We've restarted doing 2-day hackathons at my work, and in the spirit of being as inclusive as possible for all team members, we don't require teams to submit code at the end. Some still do though, but in the end we want teams to play to their individual strengths and deliver anything they want that fits the theme. We do pick themes that are relevant to the business, but there are no other requirements, and we do it o…

The working hours thing alone is awesome -- it sends a signal that "this is a good and valuable thing that you're doing, even if no software for our business comes out of it"

Yep, and let me tell you it took negotiation with leadership to give so many people 2 days away from working on "deliverables" but in the end everyone was convinced that the team building and inspirational value was worth it.

Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#64

Post by 908B64B197 »

repomies69 wrote: post #4

This assumes the "business-y" type hackathons that are popular these days. Back when I was young, we used to organize hackathons where the point was to hack together something cool, and "winning" was not the point. If you are just making a "clickable prototype UI" that's not cool in my books.

"The main goal of the startup hackathons (or any other) is to validate the idea in a limited time that the product you build is needed by the people in the room."

The main goal is to have fun and build something that brings you joy.

Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#66

Post by dexwiz »

skinnymuch wrote: post #52
heyparkerj wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My organization's most recent hack day was won by the UX team signing up for a free demo of a chat bot service and demoing it - not a single line of code. We haven't had one since, nor do we use chat bots anywhere in our org a few years later.

How could that win? Others are saying slides were presented. Demoing a SaaS chat bot is nothing!

Hackathons are not about tech, they are about business value now. They are a chance for individual contributors or low level managers to present business ideas to their bosses. Bosses don’t really care about tech.

Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#67

Post by some_furry »

jjoonathan wrote: post #47
siva7 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term hackathon nowadays is almost never related to software development. You can win most "hackathons" with a powerpoint slide, doing actual programming won't win you a price.

Yeah, it shouldn't be this way but it is. Unless we figure out how to reclaim the term, the important thing is to recognize when a "hackathon" is actually a "pitchathon" (usually) and to not waste effort doing things that will go unappreciated at a pitchathon (namely, hacking).

> Unless we figure out how to reclaim the term,

The only winning move is not to play.

Or more specifically, the only winning move is to exploit these pitchathons to meet people with complementary skills ("backend dev? meet UI engineer") and then collectively run the hell away from the event with your expanded network.

Then go do a real hackathon with interested parties, and not business pitches.

Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#68

Post by goodpoint »

mcguire wrote: post #15

" Backend developers on hackathons are not needed " It's a good thing those horrible old days of "ideas are a dime a dozen; it's the execution that matters" are long, long gone.

Now both the idea and the execution do not matter. It's all about cornering markets and becoming monopolists of a tiny corner.

Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#69

Post by hellojesus »

Seems the concensus is that front end is the most imperative thing out of the gate. Seems true in my non hackathon side project, of which I'm the solo dev.

Can anyone please recommend a good front end framework/tool for a backend dev?

I've been working on a project for awhile and the sequence has been:

1. Get requirements

2. Make excellent back end (and clarify functionality, edge cases along the way)

3. Build non sexy front end that works functionally

4. Get complaints front end is not sexy even though it can do very sexy things through the back end

5. Requirements change massively and now I have to tear down and repeat 1-4 with ever-increasing comments about it not being sexy.

Right now everything is django templates + bootstrap + javascript/jquery. It works but is not sexy.

Re: Back end developers on hackathons are not needed

#70

Post by mohanmcgeek »

sbarre wrote: post #62
mohanmcgeek wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A success of a hackathon isn't determined by participation rate but by the number of prototypes your usual roadmap wouldn't have produced. These pitchathons and deck-athons don't really need 2 days to make.

Hey! Thanks for telling me what my hackathon should and should not be. Ultimately we do them as team building exercises, and so _our_ measure of success is about team engagement, participation and the enjoyment of the participants. Certain ideas absolutely inspire further work on our real roadmaps but that's never the goal. And so on our metrics, they are a success. But thanks for the feedback.

I'm not why you're turning combatative. I was pointing what _a_ hackathon should be as the rest of the comment section is discussing.

You definitely should continue to measure what you like at your "hackathon"

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