RIP software hackathons. Long live the hardware hackathon

hacker_88

Prompt-a-ton

NDlurker

I like the fax machine idea. Reminds me of an idea I had. Get some receipt printers for my friends and we can print to each other's printers to send text messages

ex-aws-dude

Listening to someone tell you about their AI-coded project is like listening to someone tell you a dream they had last night "and then this happened, then this happened, then this feature, then this feature" Wow that's crazy...

ElijahLynn

I was thinking about this the other day. Now that software is within reach of most idea makers, it opens the door for a much deeper level of tinkering. With very affordable, if not slow, 3d printers, and an abundance of hardware interfaces, I think we are going to see some really great weekend projects that will turn into beautiful, "where has this been until now" utility for the world! I'm excited to see software engineers and teams morph into the next stage of product builders!

sublinear

> We wired a Raspberry Pi... > ...the focus of hackathons has completely shifted away from typing code... > ...iterating on intricacies of implementation with radical refactors has become a trivial task... The irony is unreal. Where's the hardware? Since the advent of SBCs and microcontroller kits, software devs have felt the same way about hardware being trivial. Yet, a hardware engineer still makes a massive difference in the outcome of the project.

le-mark

Hackathons turned into “nice ui with mock data”-athons. Whoever got the best ui person on their team won. I benefitted from this a few times!

pdntspa

Can we kill the hackathon please? Yes I totally want to get nerd-sniped for some of my precious off time for some trivial reward. NOT Its a fantastic deal for management if you can find people gullible enough. But a raw deal for the worker bees themselves

deadbabe

On the contrary, I think software hackathons could really hit a golden age where we see how far people can push the limits of what we ever thought possible within 24 hours or a weekend through the use of AI. Less “pretty UI with mock data” and more fully working products ready for the consumer market.

kristopolous

I'm ok with them. It's all the stuff I'm weak on: pitching, making eye-contact, telling convincing stories, and engaging audience. I suck at this. Making people feel my pain or communicating effectively quickly I'm total garbage at. Hackathons are now only this. They have turned into an exercise that highlights my core weaknesses and that's why 25 years into my career I'm going to them almost every weekend. This is the stuff I really need to get better at and finally, I am. Slowly but also, provably. Also, this problem is unique: I call it "the trailhead". You get deep into the problem (the trail) and forget what it looked like at the trailhead and thus fail to compel the product because you spend your time on the wrong level of details and the wrong aspects. That's why you can pitch something not yours better then your own stuff.

brador

AI can make hardware. It can also generate the ideas for your next hardware hackathon. Human intelligence is no longer required. We’re in the age of human hand crafted creativity. Imperfections of value.

croshan

Nearly all my hackathon projects were hardware, back in college. A couple examples (both from HackPrinceton, which had the best EE labs): * https://blog.cyrusroshan.com/post/electronic-banjo (crowd favorite) * https://blog.cyrusroshan.com/post/spin-to-win (a "moonshot" idea) There's something nice about holding your work in your hands. Tangible work is also both easy to explain, and hard to fake. So going the hardware route felt fun, fulfilling, and scored well. Good times.

feverzsj

Just ban internet connection.

yieldcrv

AI can one-shot hardware interfacing too I think any idea of discipline demonstrations will get whittled away until its more like battlebots or robot wars

ashm1104

I second that, hardware hackathons were and will be the game changers, software hackathon is a done thing, shouldn't be taken much seriously tbh...