I won a month-long hackathon in 3 hours
onmattersconcerningmyexistence.com
onmattersconcerningmyexistence.com
Joking cynicism aside, I think it was well done. I read the post to the end even though they gave the answer up front (good practice despite what’s”growth hackers” will tell you) and their mentions of the company seem authentic (i.e. they don’t tell you what they do, just that it was his main focus and made some legitimizing progress).
Ultimately, these events are entered either for the money or for the fame - the submitter finding a way to get a bit of both. Since Google didn't give out a large amount, they could rely mainly on fame, and that requires more than a post in a single reddit community (and a post removed by the moderators!).
Your submission is the real-world example of "work smart, not hard"
All he did was a really low-effort submission.
I'd call it more taking advantage of the situation (he did too), which I like in my sales colleagues, and less in my engineering colleagues.
I'd hire him for sales.
I wouldn't want that comment associated with my name.
Not to mention the endless amount of false expectations and customer complaints that causes, wasting engineers or devs & post-sales support staff endless hours dealing with the fallout. And nothing good happens to a company's culture when cheating in one area is fully embraced.
Could be next month, could be tomorrow.
Unfortunately, the more of the later you have, the more people seem to get frustrated at the former.
Keep it in mind for next hackathons!