If you really care about programming and not having someone else tell you you're good, then do it because you want to. I have been programming for over 25 year

If you really care about programming and not having someone else tell you you're good, then do it because you want to. I have been programming for over 25 years. I have never and would never go to a hackathon. I program because I want to. I program because I'm paid to. I don't program because I want a room full of strangers to stare at me. Turning programming into the type of popularity contest they had at the high school prom I never went to sounds like a nightmare.