HackLife Origins — Who am I?
In case you forgot, I’m going to live in my Toyota Prius between September and December so I can go to a hackathon every weekend. AKA living the DREAM!
I’d like to tell you who I am, and why I’m doing HackLife. I got into programming at 13 years old. No, I wasn’t some genius young hacker, I was actually horrible. But my mom signed me up for a week at the iD Tech camp at Stanford, programming in C++. I really liked how the logic flowed, and by the end of the week, I built an on-screen calculator. I wasn’t really hooked then. In fact, I had no idea what I did or how I did it. I just knew that adding two and three showed five.
I didn’t really fall in love with coding until I was taking my Computer Science AP class in high school. If you’re in high school and reading this, PLEASE consider taking your computer science ap class. It instantly became my favorite class of the day. I would joke around with my buds about nerdy things. One of them was really good at hacking into things. He crashed our school’s network, made it onto Microsoft’s wall of honor, and once I even gave him the answers to the CS test in exchange for a year’s free Spotify premium (Sorry Mr. Nguyen). I still have no idea how he hacked that.
When it came time to apply for colleges, I had no idea what major I wanted to pick. Hell, I wanted to be a rock star. I spent most of my time playing guitar, writing, or recording songs with my band and by myself. But I truly loved that Computer Science AP class, more than any class I’d ever taken in my life, actually. So my mom convinced me to put Computer Science as my declared major. I was so out of touch with the need for college, that I only applied to five schools, not finishing my application to USC because of an email I was too lazy to reply to. I was not the best role model.
I went to Cal Poly Pomona, and after a month of classes, I realized that being a rock star wasn’t in the stars for me, and that I still loved coding. I put all my effort into coding school projects. These projects were definitely lacking something that I used to associate with coding, but I didn’t know what. After two quarters of this, I went to my first hackathon, HackPoly. I could barely code, but I had so much fun learning. If you’re reading this, don’t know how to code, and want to (or don’t want to), go to a hackathon. Just one hackathon could change your life. At that first hackathon, HackPoly, I found what I was missing in my classes: FUN and FRIENDSHIPS. At HackPoly, I made friends that I still talk to today. Its hard not to, after staying up all those hours together. I was also coding a project that I wasn’t assigned, one that I thought of, and because of that, it was like writing my own songs. I was a free man, no longer tied to the desk and the number 2 Ticonderoga pencil. I chose then to go to more hackathons.
Over the next two years, I did that. However, I did so very slowly. As of today I’ve only been to five hackathons (that number will change soon *wink*). During my winter break of 2015–16, I told my mom that I was on route to graduate a semester early from USC (I switched schools after my first year at Cal Poly, after finally replying to that email and maybe 50 more). That was the moment.
My mom said, “You know, you could take a semester off and travel. Maybe even go to a couple hackathons. It would be fun.”
“No way Momma! I want to graduate as soon as I can!” Why the f — — did I say that. I was so repelled by the idea at first. I think it was because my mom was suggesting it. But I didn’t let the idea leave me, it stayed in the back of my mind. a week later it was January 7th and I decided to visit MLH’s website to see if their Spring ’16 schedule was up, and it was. I saw they had a hackathon on the 14th in Eugene, Oregon. I thought there is no way they still have applications opened. But I was wrong and they did. I though there is now way I’ll get in. But I was wrong again and they did. I thought, for sure, there is now way they can cover my travel from Los Angeles. But I was wrong three for three and they paid for my flights.
That hackathon, Quackhack, was my favorite hackathon in my own perosnal history of hackathons. I even made a video blog to practice for my real journey about it (check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKTFmRua3CM but don’t subscribe to that channel if you want to see more, I decided to move all videos to my own personal channel here. Also please let me know if you want more vlogs, or if you hated this one and only want blogs, or don’t want anything, or just want to eat some pizza and watch Narcos on Netflix).
In the airport leaving Eugene the day after the hackathon, I was crying. I was so sad to leave. I had made amazing friends and we created something amazing to us.
I knew right then I had to do what my mom said, and make hackathons a serious priority. Then and there in the airport, I bought the domain Hacklife.pw and hosting for $10/year through Namecheap. Thank god for namecheap, amiright? A month later, I posted in the Facebook group Hackathon Hackers, expecting maybe 12 likes. I got over 100 in 24 hours! I was so stoked. People like you were interested in what I was doing. I noticed this interest and made a website with an email sign up link. So thank you!
Since then, I made a giant spreadsheet of all the hackathons that happened last fall, messaged all of them, made another smaller spreadsheet with the ones that replied and told me they will have another hackathon this fall. I loved all the positive responses I got; I was even asked to give a talk at Huskie Hack in Illinois! (Are you going? Let me know by sending an email to jonathanallengrant@gmail.com, it is my real inbox.)
I’ve also been setting up all of my social medias (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube, Medium). I plan to use these to show others not only how awesome it is to drop out of school and be homeless in the name of hackathons, but also how easy and simple it can be.
After telling my counselor the plan, he gave me a form to sign, indicating I wouldn’t be returning to school. It was that easy. I haven’t looked back since I signed it.
So, yeah. I’m really doing it. Now that I’ve had a chance to tell you who I am, I would love to hear who you are. Send me an email! (jonathanallengrant@gmail.com)
Hack Prius,
Hack Love,
Hack Life,
-Jonathan
