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If you're a student and are interested in finding a hackathon near you to participate in, check out https://mlh.io/events https://mlh.io/events for a list of gr

If you're a student and are interested in finding a hackathon near you to participate in, check out https://mlh.io/events https://mlh.io/events for a list of great events in North America and https://mlh.io/eu https://mlh.io/eu for events in Europe. As someone who got their start at student hackathons (I wanted to be a lawyer before I went to my first one) and as someone who has been to hundreds of these in my life, I can definitely testify to the importance of this movement for students everywhere. This is where you learn the hard skills you need to be a programmer, designer, entrepreneur, or artist - not in the classroom.

atroyn 12y ago
I was with you right up until "This is where you learn the hard skills you need to be a programmer, designer, entrepreneur, or artist - not in the classroom.". If you want to have fun and really wring out your skillset as any of those things, Hackathons are a great place to do it. If you want to experience something new, if you want to meet interesting people, sure, hackathons are great. But a hackathon is a terrible environment to learn programming and entrepreneurship. Hackathons won't help you learn, or improve at programming. At a hackathon you're slapping APIs together and writing code that just barely works well enough for a demo. You have 24-48 hours, you don't have time to learn how to do things well, that can only come with experience and often, yes, in the classroom. If you want to be an entrepreneur, and I mean really execute on a product, talk to users, find the right niche, iterate on an idea and figure out a real business model, you won't do it at a hackathon. You're most interested in making something that will be entertaining for the audience there on that day. I'm not a designer or artist, so I can't speak for them, but I'm sure the situation is similar. I've been to at least half a dozen hackathons of various stripes in the last few years, and while they're tremendous fun, they don't replace learning.
- theyCallMeSwift 12y ago
  I think the thing that you have to remember is that there are a lot of different types of learners out there. From the sound of it, the hackathon environment is not conducive to your particular learning style (which is totally fine). Hackathons are great for the kinds of people who learn by doing or who need lots of real-world practice to master skills. The other thing I'll point out is that a lot of "hard skills" that you need to be successful at those things are not necessarily technical. Examples: learning to work on a team, learning to deal with things going wrong on a deadline, learning to explain your work to other people. So, don't forget about those benefits too!
  - windust 12y ago
    I disagree, I think the hard skills for being a successful software developer are picked up by honing your craft daily working on the same project. Hackathons are too contrived since the goal is to have a finished product in 24 ~ 48 hours. Every time I have done one I throw away all the "Danger, Bad practice" signals from my sub conscience and work towards finishing the product/idea. Things that are important like maintainability (even if your hack is successful, and get investor funding you want to re-write it properly), coupling, testing, documentation, API, Memory profiling, Logging, performance optimizations, design patterns are thrown out the window to get that idyllic prototype out. Even working as a team, there is very little you gain from spending 48 hours with (mostly unknown) individuals than it is for your peers in a job where you actually have a favor economy. And I don't mean that there isn't any value on hack-a-thons. I think you're right on dealing with deadline pressures and the ability of working yourself out of a problem in a pinch are valuable skills. I just don't think that's where the "hard" skills needed to become a successful software developer are learned.
- clay_to_n 12y ago
  One of the target audiences for college hackathons are college students who have very little experience. I think they are a great learning experience, at least your first few - they give you the confidence to sit down with a team and an idea and actually build it. When someone goes from never having built a mobile app to having a working iOS app they designed and built themselves with the help of a team and maybe a mentor, the hackathon was worth it. These are the weekends that will motivate them to decide to work on a startup with a friend, or realize they can be both programmer + designer at the same time.
pnathan 12y ago
This kind of environment bears no relation to the workforce. Further, a lot of people learned their programming skills in the classroom and then went on to succeed at work without any hackathons.
squeaky-clean 12y ago
Are there any resources like this for non-students? I used to enter programming tournaments a lot as a student, and wish I had the courage at the time to attend a hackathon. They seem very fun, but I am not really good at finding them. A few friends and I often have our own weekend hackathons, where we'll spend 48 hours intensely hammering out the basics for either an idea we've had, or one that we decide to come up with on the spot, but I'd love to try it out in a more social, competitive setting. I work at a startup already, it's not the learning "hard skills" part that interests me. I'd just like to meet more people who are interested in coding fun tools/toys.
- TimFogarty 12y ago
  There's http://www.hackathonwatch.com/ http://www.hackathonwatch.com/ Also checking out eventbrite is a good idea. Non-student hackathons can be a pretty mixed bag so be careful which ones you choose to go to. Battlehack is a pretty fun hackathon that's not just for students: http://battlehack.net/ http://battlehack.net/

atroyn 12y ago

I was with you right up until "This is where you learn the hard skills you need to be a programmer, designer, entrepreneur, or artist - not in the classroom.". If you want to have fun and really wring out your skillset as any of those things, Hackathons are a great place to do it. If you want to experience something new, if you want to meet interesting people, sure, hackathons are great. But a hackathon is a terrible environment to learn programming and entrepreneurship. Hackathons won't help you learn, or improve at programming. At a hackathon you're slapping APIs together and writing code that just barely works well enough for a demo. You have 24-48 hours, you don't have time to learn how to do things well, that can only come with experience and often, yes, in the classroom. If you want to be an entrepreneur, and I mean really execute on a product, talk to users, find the right niche, iterate on an idea and figure out a real business model, you won't do it at a hackathon. You're most interested in making something that will be entertaining for the audience there on that day. I'm not a designer or artist, so I can't speak for them, but I'm sure the situation is similar. I've been to at least half a dozen hackathons of various stripes in the last few years, and while they're tremendous fun, they don't replace learning.

theyCallMeSwift 12y ago
I think the thing that you have to remember is that there are a lot of different types of learners out there. From the sound of it, the hackathon environment is not conducive to your particular learning style (which is totally fine). Hackathons are great for the kinds of people who learn by doing or who need lots of real-world practice to master skills. The other thing I'll point out is that a lot of "hard skills" that you need to be successful at those things are not necessarily technical. Examples: learning to work on a team, learning to deal with things going wrong on a deadline, learning to explain your work to other people. So, don't forget about those benefits too!
- windust 12y ago
  I disagree, I think the hard skills for being a successful software developer are picked up by honing your craft daily working on the same project. Hackathons are too contrived since the goal is to have a finished product in 24 ~ 48 hours. Every time I have done one I throw away all the "Danger, Bad practice" signals from my sub conscience and work towards finishing the product/idea. Things that are important like maintainability (even if your hack is successful, and get investor funding you want to re-write it properly), coupling, testing, documentation, API, Memory profiling, Logging, performance optimizations, design patterns are thrown out the window to get that idyllic prototype out. Even working as a team, there is very little you gain from spending 48 hours with (mostly unknown) individuals than it is for your peers in a job where you actually have a favor economy. And I don't mean that there isn't any value on hack-a-thons. I think you're right on dealing with deadline pressures and the ability of working yourself out of a problem in a pinch are valuable skills. I just don't think that's where the "hard" skills needed to become a successful software developer are learned.
clay_to_n 12y ago
One of the target audiences for college hackathons are college students who have very little experience. I think they are a great learning experience, at least your first few - they give you the confidence to sit down with a team and an idea and actually build it. When someone goes from never having built a mobile app to having a working iOS app they designed and built themselves with the help of a team and maybe a mentor, the hackathon was worth it. These are the weekends that will motivate them to decide to work on a startup with a friend, or realize they can be both programmer + designer at the same time.

pnathan 12y ago

This kind of environment bears no relation to the workforce. Further, a lot of people learned their programming skills in the classroom and then went on to succeed at work without any hackathons.

squeaky-clean 12y ago

Are there any resources like this for non-students? I used to enter programming tournaments a lot as a student, and wish I had the courage at the time to attend a hackathon. They seem very fun, but I am not really good at finding them. A few friends and I often have our own weekend hackathons, where we'll spend 48 hours intensely hammering out the basics for either an idea we've had, or one that we decide to come up with on the spot, but I'd love to try it out in a more social, competitive setting. I work at a startup already, it's not the learning "hard skills" part that interests me. I'd just like to meet more people who are interested in coding fun tools/toys.

TimFogarty 12y ago
There's http://www.hackathonwatch.com/ http://www.hackathonwatch.com/ Also checking out eventbrite is a good idea. Non-student hackathons can be a pretty mixed bag so be careful which ones you choose to go to. Battlehack is a pretty fun hackathon that's not just for students: http://battlehack.net/ http://battlehack.net/