Why Hackathons Suck (and don’t have to)

Techies love hackathons. What could be better than getting together for an evening, or a weekend, with food, friends, maybe a beer, and using one’s magic powers to create a piece of technology that saves the world?

I exaggerate. Most people don’t think they’ll save the world in a weekend, but sometimes they act as if they believe they can.

As software professionals, when was the last time we went to our bosses and said “No problem. I’ll build that brand new production system for you in 8-16hrs”? Probably never.

Certainly not as often as we’ve freaked-out when the boss came to us with some impossible deadline. “You can’t expect me to build something effective, reliable, great in N-months!” we scream. “Be reasonable!”

So why do we sell the myth of the 2-day app to non-profits and other mission driven organizations?

Maybe we like the buzz of seeing ourselves as heroes able to jump tall-buildings with our nerd super-powers.

Or maybe we just like the pizza.

Either way, there are several problems with the way a typical hackathon model that make it almost impossible for them to succeed. I list some specifics below, but first I can sum up the core issue:

Hackathons just aren’t serious. They are in no way up to the challenge of delivering effective, useful, impactful technology.

A little more detail:

by jwishnie, ThoughtWorks |  Read more:

Photo: Ashely Ellis