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A hackathon is something that used to be a cool party for geeks (i.e., a Mathletics competition or an ACM programming contest) until the corporate overlords bas

A hackathon is something that used to be a cool party for geeks (i.e., a Mathletics competition or an ACM programming contest) until the corporate overlords bastardized it and converted a good thing into unpaid overtime with free beer.

afterburner 9y ago
While simultaneously "proving" that all projects could get done in one tenth of the time.
- meesterdude 9y ago
  Well, what would be the argument against that - if in fact it does deliver code that solves a problem in a short period of time? Why can't you just do that all the time?
  - mighty_atomic_c 9y ago
    Same reason you can't drug up or taze the special goose to produce more golden eggs. Long term high intensity output will lead to burnout, even if the salary is 10x people would struggle and crash. Pushing at 100% full enthusiasm is like sprinting, it is not possible to maintain that intensity for very long. It can be fun, it can be productive, but the wiser approach has the long-term and end in mind.
  - raquo 9y ago
    Having a fairly small, well defined problem, working in a small self-selected team, with no outside interference and typically no clients outside the team. No managers, no PMs, no bug reports. This is not how day-to-day projects get done. Regardless of all of that, in my experience a typical impressive hackathon project is still just a barely working demo that benefitted from a significant amount of research and planning beforehand, and will require an even greater amount of hardening and polish afterwards. There is no magic, it's just a vastly different kind of work environment with both inputs and outputs incomparable to day-to-day work.
    - baud147258 9y ago
      The place where I'm working has done a corporate "hackathon". It took place on a normal day and I don't think there was any overtime, we got free food, but all projects that delivered something relied on existing research and need a good deal of polish afterward.
  - silveroriole 9y ago
    Sounds like a good argument for always introducing an artificial fatal flaw into your project before presenting it... so proj management can’t see it and yell “my god, it works! Let’s put this cobbled together, coffee-fuelled mess right onto prod!”
shoo 9y ago
random workernews commenter: i mentally apply s/hack/work/g , the results are mildly entertaining and arguably more accurate.

afterburner 9y ago

While simultaneously "proving" that all projects could get done in one tenth of the time.

meesterdude 9y ago
Well, what would be the argument against that - if in fact it does deliver code that solves a problem in a short period of time? Why can't you just do that all the time?
- mighty_atomic_c 9y ago
  Same reason you can't drug up or taze the special goose to produce more golden eggs. Long term high intensity output will lead to burnout, even if the salary is 10x people would struggle and crash. Pushing at 100% full enthusiasm is like sprinting, it is not possible to maintain that intensity for very long. It can be fun, it can be productive, but the wiser approach has the long-term and end in mind.
- raquo 9y ago
  Having a fairly small, well defined problem, working in a small self-selected team, with no outside interference and typically no clients outside the team. No managers, no PMs, no bug reports. This is not how day-to-day projects get done. Regardless of all of that, in my experience a typical impressive hackathon project is still just a barely working demo that benefitted from a significant amount of research and planning beforehand, and will require an even greater amount of hardening and polish afterwards. There is no magic, it's just a vastly different kind of work environment with both inputs and outputs incomparable to day-to-day work.
  - baud147258 9y ago
    The place where I'm working has done a corporate "hackathon". It took place on a normal day and I don't think there was any overtime, we got free food, but all projects that delivered something relied on existing research and need a good deal of polish afterward.
- silveroriole 9y ago
  Sounds like a good argument for always introducing an artificial fatal flaw into your project before presenting it... so proj management can’t see it and yell “my god, it works! Let’s put this cobbled together, coffee-fuelled mess right onto prod!”

shoo 9y ago

random workernews commenter: i mentally apply s/hack/work/g , the results are mildly entertaining and arguably more accurate.