Why hackathons are bad for engineers

In a classic weekend hackathon, a team is formulated over a short period of time to create an outcome either based on a set theme or by brainstorming something of merit. This happens typically in a span of 48 hours. Sounds fun? Well the thing that makes it fun is also what makes it bad for engineering.

There is tons of shortcuts out there in software or even hardware to do something, ranging from completely created solutions requiring a small configuration step. Down to more overarching solutions that are more generic in nature. The thing is, these items were created for the sake of simplicity and speed.

What does this encourage? It encourages you to do the minimal effort. What’s more is that winners are judged based so much more on how it is presented more than whether something great was invented. In other words it lacks grit.

When you start from this basepoint, every engineer thinks there is a quick win to everything, not engaging in longer scale strategies or things that are tedious to not being fun. It paints a bad idea of how engineering really is.

Sure it’s still fun, but I’d say it’s best for entrepreneurs and people who love doing sales and pitches.