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Why do you lose the benefits as soon as it becomes competitive? Sports are competitive but people still play sports because they love them. I imagine most atte

by gailees 12y ago

Why do you lose the benefits as soon as it becomes competitive? Sports are competitive but people still play sports because they love them. I imagine most attendees will be there for the same reason though the prizes are a great plus.

andrewfong 12y ago
Inter-team collaboration drops in a competitive environment. One of the nice things about hackathons is that you can get feedback and ideas from other teams in those environments. If you're actively competing (and for something as scarce as a YC interview spot), then the incentive to help someone else out decreases.
- cdonaghy 12y ago
  I totally agree with this, competitive environments increase stress and decrease collaboration.
- nightpool 12y ago
  This is not a iron-clad rule—just look at FIRST Robotics, which has managed to maintain a very strong sense of inter-team collaboration even in a competitive environment. Just because something isn't often done doesn't mean it can't be: the rules just need to be right.
  - neilparikh 12y ago
    As someone who took part in FRC this year and last year, I'd agree that the inter-team collaboration is definitely very strong. We got a lot of help during competition (and occasionally helped others too). But part of that might be because during qualifying rounds, you are on teams of 3, which change every game. So by the end of qualifying rounds, you play with (and against) most of the teams there, so it makes sense to help the other teams (since you will probably play a game allied with them sometime). The other reason is that the culture of FIRST emphasizes those ideals, and so they're maintained that way too. One of the core values is Gracious Professionalism, and it really is emphasized everywhere. I'm not sure which factor is the most important (I suspect it's the second one), so I'm just thinking out loud, but I thought I'd get some more information out there. But I think the rotating teams gives strategic value to helping other teams, which also increasing collaboration.
guptaneil 12y ago
It depends on the kind of hackathon you want. I agree that having prizes makes everything more competitive and serious, but it probably also increases the overall quality of participants. A new developer with maybe a couple weeks experience probably wouldn't bother with this hackathon but would try their hand at a hackathon that doesn't feel as competitive. Do you want the hackathon to attract a wide variety of people or do you want to target top quality engineers? There's no right answer, it's up the organizers. YC has chosen to attract quality, which makes sense given their business goals. An organization that teaches people to code should focus on being inclusive and avoid the competitive nature of valuable prizes. To use your sport metaphor, professional sports are very competitive and attract amazing talent. But you or I would never show up to compete in a pro-sports game. We might join the game in the neighborhood park though.

by gailees 12y ago

andrewfong 12y ago

Inter-team collaboration drops in a competitive environment. One of the nice things about hackathons is that you can get feedback and ideas from other teams in those environments. If you're actively competing (and for something as scarce as a YC interview spot), then the incentive to help someone else out decreases.

cdonaghy 12y ago
I totally agree with this, competitive environments increase stress and decrease collaboration.
nightpool 12y ago
This is not a iron-clad rule—just look at FIRST Robotics, which has managed to maintain a very strong sense of inter-team collaboration even in a competitive environment. Just because something isn't often done doesn't mean it can't be: the rules just need to be right.
- neilparikh 12y ago
  As someone who took part in FRC this year and last year, I'd agree that the inter-team collaboration is definitely very strong. We got a lot of help during competition (and occasionally helped others too). But part of that might be because during qualifying rounds, you are on teams of 3, which change every game. So by the end of qualifying rounds, you play with (and against) most of the teams there, so it makes sense to help the other teams (since you will probably play a game allied with them sometime). The other reason is that the culture of FIRST emphasizes those ideals, and so they're maintained that way too. One of the core values is Gracious Professionalism, and it really is emphasized everywhere. I'm not sure which factor is the most important (I suspect it's the second one), so I'm just thinking out loud, but I thought I'd get some more information out there. But I think the rotating teams gives strategic value to helping other teams, which also increasing collaboration.

guptaneil 12y ago

It depends on the kind of hackathon you want. I agree that having prizes makes everything more competitive and serious, but it probably also increases the overall quality of participants. A new developer with maybe a couple weeks experience probably wouldn't bother with this hackathon but would try their hand at a hackathon that doesn't feel as competitive. Do you want the hackathon to attract a wide variety of people or do you want to target top quality engineers? There's no right answer, it's up the organizers. YC has chosen to attract quality, which makes sense given their business goals. An organization that teaches people to code should focus on being inclusive and avoid the competitive nature of valuable prizes. To use your sport metaphor, professional sports are very competitive and attract amazing talent. But you or I would never show up to compete in a pro-sports game. We might join the game in the neighborhood park though.