On Hackathons
Hackathons are weird. Emotions are constantly changing, bouncing between anxiety and excitement: you figure out the “solution”, and then you and your team immediately realize why it doesn’t work. And you repeat this loop for a while, until desperation, which is when you finally decide to commit to something, despite knowing that it’s still only a “solution” at best.
Then there are team dynamics! Sometimes you work with people you’ve never worked with before, and hackathons always seem to bring out some of the worst in people (and sometimes the best). You have people who are really excellent at what they do, but they’re overwhelmed by impostor syndrome. Then you have the false confidence and bravado of others. Technical discussions often end up being a battle of egos, and it’s terrible to manage! You also have these random people who look down on others that aren’t in their field, and it’s just a mess.
By the time you get to the end, you’ve just finished building a barely standing tower of BS and somehow you muster up the courage to present it in front of your peers and a panel of judges. Some choose to present in a condescending tone, as if they’ve built the Next Big Thing.
Hackathons just attract weird. Many times weird is bad.
But sometimes weird is good. You can meet some incredibly interesting people, get introduced to cool tech (I remember when Pebble used to go around the college hackathon scene–I miss Pebble), and learn new things – not just about tech, but about yourself. How you deal with stress, how you work with others, and how you get over the nerves to present. Most importantly, how to take feedback and be sit comfortably in being wrong. Every once in a while you’ll get to see an amazing demo, the ones that really embrace the “hack” in “hackathon”, and they create quirky tech and present in such a joyous manner; they mesmerize their audience and it’s just so much fun to be a part of that.
It’s good to get uncomfortable every once in a while. Falling in love with a problem (and not the solution) isn’t easy! Hackathons aren’t easy. But they can be very rewarding.
But please, get enough sleep, and don’t eat too much junk!