For the love of Code, stop calling every damn thing a hackathon!
Do you know one thing that makes my blood boil?
Misuse of words.
And people are using one word incorrectly.
People are calling everything a hackathon.
Yes.
Everything.
Think I’m joking?
Think I’m exaggerating?
Or *shudder*, are you one of those who think that everything’s a hackathon?
Well, I got news for you buddy …
No.
Not everything’s a hackathon.
Let me explain.
But you’ve got to know what a hackathon is first.
What’s a hackathon?
You might have heard that a hackathon is a coined word that comes from a portmanteau of two words: hack and marathon.
While this is technically correct, what does this even mean?
I yield the floor to Subhendu Panigrahi, one of the co-founders of Skillenza to explain.
He says that in his article, “14 reasons you should participate in a hackathon this summer” in this context, a hack means to find a quicker and simpler way to solve a problem while a marathon means a long non-stop run.
He clarifies by observing that a hackathon is “a gathering of developers, designers and ideation folks working towards a common goal to build something innovative.”
In short, a hackathon is an event where different kinds of people come together to build something meaningful using technology within a certain limited time period. Usually, it’s 24 hours but could be longer or shorter depending on the circumstances. And may or may not involve tons of caffeine being consumed.
Here’s an example of what happened at Bootstrap paradox, a full-length 24-hour hackathon for professionals:
And here’s a write up about what happened at Devengers HackNight 1.0, a mini-hackathon of 12 hours.
Now that we’ve seen some examples of hackathons, let me go over the incident that set me off on this rant.
It involved a coding contest and a serious misuse of a certain term.
The Coding Contest
I was at an event the other day and I saw coders coding at what people called a hackathon.
Perfectly normal, I suppose.
I asked a couple of them what they were building.
They said they weren’t building anything; they were taking part in a programming contest.
A programming contest.
Let those words sink in.
Are you kidding me?
They were calling a programming contest a hackathon.
Aaaaaaaaaaargh!
It’s not!
It’s just a programming contest. Where you solve a programming problem. With an expected output given a particular input. Got that?
For example, the contest involved programming up a solution to something like this:
Now, I’m not saying this is a bad problem. Or even that it’s not going to test programmer’s skills.
I’m just saying that such coding contests are not hackathons.
Right?
I mean given what you now know, will you call this coding contest a hackathon?
Call it a code-a-thon if you want.
Coding contest.
Just don’t call it a hackathon.
But this is not the most serious misuse of the word.
Another example.
The Bug Finding Contest
I was at yet another event where a company organized a 24-hour event where they invited coders to find bugs in their product.
This sort of activity happens quite often but some companies have the audacity to call these bug finding hackathons or some variation with the word hackathon tagged at the end.
Nah, no way.
In no way, shape or form is this a hackathon.
It’s a bug finding mission.
That’s it.
No more. No less.
You’re not building anything, are you?
Luckily, the people behind the contest I went to called it a bugathon. Still a bad name if you ask me, but better than calling it a _____ hackathon.
Yes, this will set me off on another rant about how everyone adds a athon to the end of everything, but that’s a rant for another day. My rantathon!
Now, a third and final example.
Office Work
So, this story is anecdotal. I’d heard this from a friend of a friend. But I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this has actually happened.
Anyway, the story goes that the company the person worked for allocated a weekend to finish up all uncompleted office work for the week.
I don’t want to mention the company name. Let’s call it X.
Anyway, the fine people at X, called this weekend push, the X office hackathon.
Perhaps to motivate their employees.
In my opinion, this is wrong!
I mean, I ask you, will you call this a hackathon?
I’ll let you think about it for a second …
No, right?
It’s just a part of normal office work. Not a hackathon. (The word hackathon has a different connotation).
On the other hand, I’m perfectly fine calling the Facebook Corporate Hackathon a hackathon. As Mark Zuckerberg says, people work to create and build something, but with the only rule that the devs at Facebook can’t work on what they do in normal office hours. It’s this spirit of innovation that sets this apart.
End of story.
There are many more examples where people called many things hackathons that are not truly hackathons. I’m sure you can think of others. Do let me know of the most egregious examples you’ve come across.
And for those who misuse the term hackathon?
Don’t.
Don’t make things sexy by tagging the word hackathon at the end of it. It dilutes the flavor.
And it makes you a liar.
Yes, I’m serious. I feel that strongly about it.
So, am I overreacting?
Now, you may think that I’m merely spitting venom. And you may say, hey buddy, language evolves and so don’t be such an old fashioned grandpa.
But I tell you this.
Yes, language evolves but not this drastically. You can’t call everything a single term.
I mean if you start referring to poison as water, and order water from somewhere, wouldn’t there be a major problem? Is the person at the counter going to give you water (well, what we now call water) or poison? Are you going to live or die?
I don’t want to take such risks; do you??
So, please folks. Stop calling everything a hackathon, ok?
To recap, a hackathon is about 24 hours’ duration where you work in teams to build something cool using technology. That’s it. Nothing more. Nothing less.
So, please, please people. Keep the sacred meaning of the word intact.
Don’t poison it.
Hey! Are you a company or an individual who wants to conduct a real hackathon? Stop by Skillenza and see how we can help.
