Failure, Hackathons, and BoilerMake
By Shriyash Jalukar
There is a really big myth that you have to know everything about programming to go to a hackathon. No way.
I’ve written about my previous experiences with hackathons, but for those who don’t know, I went to MHacks II in September 2013 and quickly caught on to the collegiate hacker scene.
It’s eye-opening to look at my first few projects and see how far I have come. At my first hackathon, I worked on an small buggy web application with the goal of tracking the coding style of programmers. My friend did most of the work, but I caught along and learned a ton.
We didn’t even end up finishing the project, and we hesitantly pitched our idea and small prototype at the “science fair” style expo at the end. I think we ended up deleting the code after the hackathon too.
Yeah, it was that bad.
The truth is, no one goes to a hackathon as an expert
You don’t have to go to a hackathon as a hacker. But you always come out as one. That weekend impacted me in a deep way and I threw myself into the hacker community.
I went to 11 hackathons over the next two years, traveling across the country and learning a ton at each event. I also made some of my best friends along the ride.
Then I started organizing.
I wanted to give back to the hacker community. So I found out about an organization called StudentRND, and immediately set to work on organizing a small-scale hackathon in the metro Detroit area. I did it three times, and every time it was a different experience. CodeDay Detroit has taken place in the heart of downtown Detroit, at a local university, and at a very generous startup. Organizing hackathons is a lot to handle, but seeing kids’ faces light up when their app suddenly works, makes everything worthwhile.
This post is about failure, so I feel like I should talk about this. I was planning on organizing a large high school hackathon in Detroit this past summer but it never happened. I don’t know exactly what went wrong. We all were really focused in the beginning, but the vision kept changing and we all wanted different things. Coupled with Detroit’s recent economic problems and safety issues, we just couldn’t find a place to host it. It became a mess after a while and we were forced to cancel.
Early on, though, hackathon guru Dave Fontenot said something really powerful to me. It’s important because I don’t think people realize how much support is often around them.
“Everyone is on your team, you just haven’t asked them yet”
This fall, I’m going to be a freshman at Purdue University. Ever since I committed, more than anything, I wanted to be a part of the BoilerMake team. I just wanted to continue being a part of the community I loved so much. And then I was given the opportunity to join the exec board.
The BoilerMake team seems awesome, and I can’t wait to get involved on campus. But more than anything, the mission seems to really resonate with me. BoilerMake is intentionally sized at around 500 hackers because we believe that larger hackathons aren’t necessarily better. Quality over quantity.
We’re focused on giving the best experience to every attendee. That’s why we’re building custom arduino boards for everyone to hack on. We’re providing the best food we can get. Our venue is going to be amazing, and our internet will be blazing fast. We’ll provide all the tools you need to work on projects.
To the hackathon veterans, I know what you’re thinking. Let me say this: our team has seen it all. We have seen every type of silly web app and been to every “best” hackathon out there. We’re organizing this hackathon with you in mind- the hackers, designers, innovators and dreamers. Let us inspire you. This is about more than a weekend- we’re giving you the tools to carry on your projects for long after BoilerMake.
We’re going to change hackathon season this year, and regardless of who you are, I want you to be a part of it. http://boilermake.org
Thanks to Shashank Rao, Crystal Gao, Anna Mitchell, Amit Mizrahi, Megan Chen, Nicole Flokos, and a few on the BoilerMake team for reading drafts of this and being inspirations.
