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I can not understand this at all. Can someone please explain this strange cultural phenomenon? I'm serious. What could possibly make someone work on anything f

I can not understand this at all. Can someone please explain this strange cultural phenomenon? I'm serious. What could possibly make someone work on anything for 30 hours straight (with only one hour break)? I couldn't imagine myself spending 30 hours straight on any activity voluntarily. What about the health implications? This reminds me of gamers dying of cardiac arrest after spending days on end in front of a computer.

ujeezy 15y ago
We built a credential in 30 hrs that can give us more recognition for our startup than we potentially would have gotten for months or more of normal work. We're not celebrity founders, we don't have press connections, and we don't know investors. We came in as nobodies on Saturday, and pitched to Dave McClure, Naval, et al on Monday. Now, we have a great hook we can use to start any conversation about our company. As far as health, yeah – kind of sucks to be taken out of commission for a few days, but a very small sacrifice and completely worth it in our minds.
- nickbarnwell 15y ago
  > We built a credential in 30 hrs that can give us more recognition for our startup than we potentially would have gotten for months or more of normal work The importance of this can't be stressed enough. Winning the Facebook Hackathon within a month of starting university was the catalyst to applying to and being accepted at a YC company for the summer as well as a ticket through the interview processes at Google, et al. More importantly, it also forged connections with local investors and angels that would have taken years to create had I gone through the normal routes, and that wasn't even a large event, so I can only imagine what an AngelHack placing would do
  - tikhonj 15y ago
    Hehe, this is really true: I got an internship immediately from one of the companies sponsoring a hackathon I got second place at. People at other companies I talked to also liked it. And, beyond that, it was some of the most fun I've had, for the longest time in a single go. Even if I didn't place, it would have been great.
- aaronblohowiak 15y ago
  wtg eo, beats giving virtual dogs virtual fleas so you can sell virtual flea collars ;)
  - ujeezy 15y ago
    haha, thanks bloho! been fun watching your success in the app store :)
pavel_lishin 15y ago
> What could possibly make someone work on anything for 30 hours straight (with only one hour break)? You're asking for an objective explanation of why people find things subjectively rewarding. Why do people climb Mount Everest? Why do they run marathons? I don't want to do either of those things, and both are probably more dangerous than a 30 hour video-gaming session.
tikhonj 15y ago
I've done some hackathons and the answer is simple: it's really fun. Building something cool from scratch in one sitting is very enjoyable. I don't think there are any serious health implication to staying up for ~30 hours, especially if you take short naps once in a while. This is actually gentler than spending about the same time awake in planes and airports, and travelling doesn't seem very strange, does it? If you only do this once in a while, it shouldn't be an issue at all.
wiredfool 15y ago
In my case, it was 12 hours for 3 iPads. (1/team member) It was fun. Got in a real zone for a while. Built something cool. Got to greenfield hack for 12 hours without dealing with any legacy code. There was a reasonable chance at winning. And all the people who would have been playing werewolf were hacking, so what else would I do?
reledi 15y ago
There are no or very few restrictions, you can build what you want, you learn a lot, you meet new people or build stronger relationships with the ones you do know, and you may end up with something very cool. There's more to it than this, but it comes down to it being fun and rewarding.

ujeezy 15y ago

We built a credential in 30 hrs that can give us more recognition for our startup than we potentially would have gotten for months or more of normal work. We're not celebrity founders, we don't have press connections, and we don't know investors. We came in as nobodies on Saturday, and pitched to Dave McClure, Naval, et al on Monday. Now, we have a great hook we can use to start any conversation about our company. As far as health, yeah – kind of sucks to be taken out of commission for a few days, but a very small sacrifice and completely worth it in our minds.

nickbarnwell 15y ago
> We built a credential in 30 hrs that can give us more recognition for our startup than we potentially would have gotten for months or more of normal work The importance of this can't be stressed enough. Winning the Facebook Hackathon within a month of starting university was the catalyst to applying to and being accepted at a YC company for the summer as well as a ticket through the interview processes at Google, et al. More importantly, it also forged connections with local investors and angels that would have taken years to create had I gone through the normal routes, and that wasn't even a large event, so I can only imagine what an AngelHack placing would do
- tikhonj 15y ago
  Hehe, this is really true: I got an internship immediately from one of the companies sponsoring a hackathon I got second place at. People at other companies I talked to also liked it. And, beyond that, it was some of the most fun I've had, for the longest time in a single go. Even if I didn't place, it would have been great.
aaronblohowiak 15y ago
wtg eo, beats giving virtual dogs virtual fleas so you can sell virtual flea collars ;)
- ujeezy 15y ago
  haha, thanks bloho! been fun watching your success in the app store :)

pavel_lishin 15y ago

> What could possibly make someone work on anything for 30 hours straight (with only one hour break)? You're asking for an objective explanation of why people find things subjectively rewarding. Why do people climb Mount Everest? Why do they run marathons? I don't want to do either of those things, and both are probably more dangerous than a 30 hour video-gaming session.

tikhonj 15y ago

I've done some hackathons and the answer is simple: it's really fun. Building something cool from scratch in one sitting is very enjoyable. I don't think there are any serious health implication to staying up for ~30 hours, especially if you take short naps once in a while. This is actually gentler than spending about the same time awake in planes and airports, and travelling doesn't seem very strange, does it? If you only do this once in a while, it shouldn't be an issue at all.

wiredfool 15y ago

In my case, it was 12 hours for 3 iPads. (1/team member) It was fun. Got in a real zone for a while. Built something cool. Got to greenfield hack for 12 hours without dealing with any legacy code. There was a reasonable chance at winning. And all the people who would have been playing werewolf were hacking, so what else would I do?

reledi 15y ago

There are no or very few restrictions, you can build what you want, you learn a lot, you meet new people or build stronger relationships with the ones you do know, and you may end up with something very cool. There's more to it than this, but it comes down to it being fun and rewarding.