Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Next Hackathon

#1

Post by kinvey » Wed, Oct 31, 2012, 2:09 PM UTC

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Next Hackathon
slideshare.net

Re: Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Next Hackathon

#2

Post by alanctgardner2 » Wed, Oct 31, 2012, 2:54 PM UTC

A lot of good ideas, but I'm not entirely sure why it had to be on Slideshare. The interface wasn't really intuitive to me right away, and I would've liked a paragraph for each heading; either to justify the point or provide examples. In general, being able to scroll down a page is better than clicking next, to my mind.

Re: Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Next Hackathon

#3

Post by maffydub » Wed, Oct 31, 2012, 2:59 PM UTC

I'm not sure I completely agree with 12:

"Hack first, learn second. Dont try to learn a new language, instead, hack something together with what you already know."

It probably depends on what you want to get out of the hackathon, but I find most of the fun being gaining familiarity with cool new APIs.

Re: Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Next Hackathon

#4

Post by idea_shot » Wed, Oct 31, 2012, 3:27 PM UTC

maffydub wrote: post #3

I'm not sure I completely agree with 12: "Hack first, learn second. Dont try to learn a new language, instead, hack something together with what you already know." It probably depends on what you want to get out of the hackathon, but I find most of the fun being gaining familiarity with cool new APIs.

I agree. Apart from learning new tech, it also lets you think about ideas that are outside your day job!

Re: Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Next Hackathon

#5

Post by Myztiq » Wed, Oct 31, 2012, 3:34 PM UTC

maffydub wrote: post #3

I'm not sure I completely agree with 12: "Hack first, learn second. Dont try to learn a new language, instead, hack something together with what you already know." It probably depends on what you want to get out of the hackathon, but I find most of the fun being gaining familiarity with cool new APIs.

I know for myself I usually get caught up learning a completely new language. For instance, in the last GGJ I ended up making a game in C# on XNA and ended up barely being able to provide help for my team. However, when on game jams with CSS3 and Javascript at my disposal I can create some awesome things.