from Hacker News

Hackathons are not a good way to bring the best out of engineers

by jaChEWAg on 7/14/19, 6:49 PM with 27 comments

• by johnday on 7/14/19, 9:39 PM

  People tend to compete in hackathons not for the prizes/job. They do it because you can spend a small amount of time producing something tangible which you can understand and be proud of. They are rewarding, intellectually stimulating, and fun.

  In game design circles the equivalent of a hackathon is called a game jam. They are almost universal and are seen as an excellent opportunity to both try out ideas and socialise with other people that you wouldn't normally get an opportunity to work with.

  > Almost everyone that attends says they are exhausted by the end [...]

  Same is true of the gym. That's not an argument against.

  > [...] you tend to consume unhealthy food & beverages in the process.

  That's a function of planning. When we run such events we provide healthy food (fruit, primarily) for free. But we also have pizza, as we do at all of our other social events. That is more of a function of group events than of hackathons per se.

  I think your concern for the well-being of hackathon participants is admirable, and if you ran such an event I think you would do it very well. Have you considered organising something?

• by halfjoking on 7/15/19, 4:17 AM

  All the Hackathons I see are sponsored by some corporation trying to exploit devs for some free work/ideas related to their business/api.

  The only exception are Game Jams. If hackathons were like Game Jams where you could use any tech you wanted but had to compete on a vague theme I’d be interested. The thing is that’s never the case. Private spaces cost money, prizes cost money, any sponsors are going to want a return on their investment. So that’s why Hackathons suck. IMO it has nothing to do with the food or long hours.

• by philipkiely on 7/15/19, 1:05 AM

  In the university environment, hackathons are really excellent. They are usually student-run but very well funded, well organized, and well attended. I have gotten a job and other opportunities from hackathons, I have won small prizes, but the reason I go is because its a fun way to spend a weekend with my friends.

  That said, if I was forced to participate in that environment instead of choosing to, or if it was for work or some other purpose that restricted my choice of projects and collaborators, then I would of course resent it, but at that point its not really a hackathon anymore, its a different kind of event stealing the name in hopes of stealing the same energy.

• by gervu on 7/14/19, 7:39 PM

  Unpopular opinion? Nah.

  It's fairly well known that they're problematic at best, in that they epitomize the practices of an industry obsessed with exploiting younger workers, crunch time, and gender imbalance.

• by myrryr on 7/14/19, 9:45 PM

  I think they are a great way to have a break from regular development. I love 'em

  I worked for a company which runs one a year, and I honestly look forward to it. Having a chance to cut loose and show what you can do is a welcome change from the daily grind.

  It also lets you show stuff that honestly you are more interested in, and maybe, you can get a product out of it - which means, you get to work on what you actually enjoy. As a way to influence a business to show what is possible, there isn't a lot better.

  I think they have their place. Just not as a BAU thing.

• by atiredturte on 7/15/19, 1:03 AM

  I think they're a good way to try something new on company time, and to have the chance to experiment with potentially crazy ideas you wouldn't have done in the past.

  Some of my favourite projects I've made during hackathons

• by ryanthedev on 7/14/19, 9:30 PM

  These are only tools leadership should be using to identify different strengths and weaknesses.

  There is no perfect singular deterministic test which can gauge an individuals success.

  The best we can do is measure people on the contributions they can make. Use the level of impact those contributions make.

  This leads into building teams. You can't take the best engineers and build an all star team. Teams are made up of different levels and types of contributions.

  When a team is looking to hire people, chemistry is the most important part.

• by Trias11 on 7/15/19, 6:05 AM

  Our team has essential engineer who has great potential [to become very rich person and do very creative and interesting things] and he is wasting his time and pushing on customer schedules because of his participation in stupid hackathons.

  I think for some in some ways it's an effort to compensate for lack of self-esteem and prove yourself that you're worthy of praise and rewards.

• by jkoudys on 7/14/19, 10:44 PM

  I much prefer regular meetups if you're looking to branch out and meet new devs. The hackathon style of coding isn't really all that practical - even if you work at a mismanaged company that's constantly in "crunch time", coding for the purpose of writing a 5 minute demo takes a very narrow skillset.

• by m463 on 7/15/19, 2:39 AM

  Many forms of competition are unhealthy. (think marathons)

  But they're a good way to figure out what is important, and what you can do. And you probably can take the lessons learned and apply them elsewhere (in more sane/moderate ways)

• by jaChEWAg on 7/14/19, 8:02 PM

  To be clear, I am not against the idea of collaborating with like-minded individuals to come up with a creative application idea however the side effects that come from these hackathon events is what I have a problem with.

• by shoo on 7/15/19, 8:34 AM

  the trick, dear worker-news-ers, is to mentally find and replace "hack" with "work". and lo: "workathon"!

  you too can participate in the workathon, with the chance to perhaps win payment for your work!

• by singlewind on 7/15/19, 4:27 AM

  I agree your point. It has to be fun and not commercial.