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I don't mean to sound elitist, but this isn't a Hackathon, its an idea-athon. Participants are limited to the small toolset of pre-built components provided to

I don't mean to sound elitist, but this isn't a Hackathon, its an idea-athon. Participants are limited to the small toolset of pre-built components provided to them, (Bubble in this case). The whole benefit of a hackathon is to think outside the box, but this actually encourages staying inside the box in order to produce a more polished product. You're getting a deep dive but completely missing any breadth.

mchannon 8y ago
In all fairness, even a large proportion of real hackathons tend to be light on code, heavy on presentation. Maybe it's a misnomer but it doesn't stop them from using the term. True hackathons, where everyone's technical, in the same place, and miles of lines of code are written on no sleep, pizza, and Mountain Dew, are really hard to come by, because few talented people have the spare time to do them, and they don't typically pay all that well. Older hackers also tend to avoid them because they're more likely to have incompatible family obligations. The terminology doesn't suit it, but it's widely used, like "Software Engineer".
toomuchtodo 8y ago
I've seen entire businesses built on top of workflow SaaS products, and once the business is proven, the owner starts refactoring (hiring their own engineers) into their own codebase. All that matters are the financials. If your experiment is validated with point and click tools, no shame in that. Prove it with one enormous Excel spreadsheet doing the heavy lifting if you have to. You are solving business problems, regardless of the tools you use.
chuqdennis 8y ago
...but is a hackathon exclusively all-coding affair? I don't think so.
dopeboy 8y ago
It depends on the objective of the hackathon. YC's hackathons (I went to both this year) focus on creating a prototype that could be a startup. So the emphasis isn't so much on the technical programming but more the delivery and business case (kinda like a YC interview I imagine). There are other hackathons I've been to that emphasize deeply diving into a technology or tool. They both have their place. Given that YC is in the business of identifying startups, I don't think it's a surprise that it leans towards an "idea-athon" like you said.

mchannon 8y ago

In all fairness, even a large proportion of real hackathons tend to be light on code, heavy on presentation. Maybe it's a misnomer but it doesn't stop them from using the term. True hackathons, where everyone's technical, in the same place, and miles of lines of code are written on no sleep, pizza, and Mountain Dew, are really hard to come by, because few talented people have the spare time to do them, and they don't typically pay all that well. Older hackers also tend to avoid them because they're more likely to have incompatible family obligations. The terminology doesn't suit it, but it's widely used, like "Software Engineer".

toomuchtodo 8y ago

I've seen entire businesses built on top of workflow SaaS products, and once the business is proven, the owner starts refactoring (hiring their own engineers) into their own codebase. All that matters are the financials. If your experiment is validated with point and click tools, no shame in that. Prove it with one enormous Excel spreadsheet doing the heavy lifting if you have to. You are solving business problems, regardless of the tools you use.

chuqdennis 8y ago

...but is a hackathon exclusively all-coding affair? I don't think so.

dopeboy 8y ago

It depends on the objective of the hackathon. YC's hackathons (I went to both this year) focus on creating a prototype that could be a startup. So the emphasis isn't so much on the technical programming but more the delivery and business case (kinda like a YC interview I imagine). There are other hackathons I've been to that emphasize deeply diving into a technology or tool. They both have their place. Given that YC is in the business of identifying startups, I don't think it's a surprise that it leans towards an "idea-athon" like you said.