How I learned extensively by a Hack-a-thon…!!

If we walk everyday, we stay healthy. If we run instead, we stay healthy plus fit. Now, there is a difference between these two things; maintaining health is a necessity but staying fit is an achievement. Well if you think this is true only for your body then you may as well rethink. Human brain of mine had this revelation a few days back when it not only ran but galloped for more than 20 hours straight. Yes it was indeed a hackathon that gave my brain a run and it was the first of its kind.

I have been working as a Software Developer for more than couple of years and I learn new things everyday; consciously or otherwise. Getting acquainted with a new technology, or with a new programming language or with just some tricks is an everyday thing for me now.

But we don’t value things we get to learn and do everyday, do we?

Even while learning academically, I have always felt that the knowledge that is imparted to us by surprises, stays for long. In my field, I discovered hackathon as a teacher that surprises you and at the end of her lecture you feel to have spent the most productive time in your life. She not only tests your mental abilities but also the physical sustenance especially when the closing hours kick in.

To give you a short background, unlike other Hackathons, we were given the theme around which a prototype was to be build. There were no constraints on choosing an idea, technology, domain or anything. Instead the theme — ‘Smart Office’ — was decided in advance for all participating teams to decide the supporting idea beforehand barring the coding part. Well, this challenge was accepted! I rushed around to take the mutex on my soon to be team members and the team four was forged. (although, we got one late addition to it :) )

EXPERIENCES:

It was a fortnight before the showtime and we four decided, like every other team, to first freeze the idea and then start working on feasibility and consequent things. We scratched our heads to find an existing problem prevailing in our office; be it on the front of premises, facility, lack of smart-sensors or even the integration of IoT with existing infrastructure. Nothing was winning our consensual nod.

Finally we decided to shortlist the top 4 prominent ideas however ambitious they were and after extensive brainstorming, decided to zero down on one. During this finalization, the things that looked attractive only in theory were brought to life like SWOT analysis. Never in my life did I use these analysis tools thinking of them as an over-kill. But soon, I loved the way they cleared the clouds of confusion in our minds. After long a discussion, an Idea was sealed and we distributed few micro-tasks among ourselves that would prepare us in advance. It was here that I felt as if I am designing the product architecture of my start-up and for few moments adrenaline rushed through my veins. I felt elated.

The D-day arrived and we assembled. The whistles blew and off we started with our implementation. We interacted among us numerous times but I can’t recall everything. A good thing we did was we validated everything that we did after every couple of hours. Time nearly flew by. I can hardly remember the last time when I was so engrossed in coding.

When such things happen, you feel contented. You don’t think about winning or losing anymore. It’s always a victory; your victory when you discover the capabilities of your true self just like the cosmic energy captivates you when you meditate. It was at this moment that I thought about writing and sharing my experience.

Accomplishments:

Closing bells were on the cards and we were able to implement something substantial in a very short span. Though it wasn’t perfect as the envisaged, a demo-able prototype was in order. No, we didn’t win but we were full of self-satisfaction and confidence. It has been my tendency to underestimate myself but that diffidence was countered during this tech-sprint. For the first time, I wrote a RESTful back end and that too in a less familiar language. I used Git extensively(for the first time) and believe it or not, I went through all the complications - especially ‘merge’ issues on my very first day!. Nevertheless, I discovered that I can go on working for 20+ hours, of course with some refreshment breaks.

Learning from mistakes

Although we were able to bring it to a point where it was presentable, we weren’t satisfied with it knowing that we could have done even better. Looking back, I think we could have prepared better. Factors that dragged us were:

1. We chose a technology that no team-member was proficient in. We all were just familiar with it and that’s why we decided to use what everyone knew in bits and pieces.
2. We did not account for the time that we had to spend tackling some unknowns. Had we reduced the scope, the output would have been even more lucrative

Takeaways for life:

Technologically, I definitely got richer wasn’t that evident? What I didn’t predict was the learning I got from people; be it my peers or colleagues in the competing teams. During this event, I got a chance to observe them closely; how keenly they were working together. On a normal day, it’s only my team whom I interact with. But this time, it was like all bright heads gathered on a floor and working at 100% efficiency. It was a fruitful marathon in true sense!!!

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