YC Hacks Recap | Hacker News Reader

YC Hacks Recap

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55 pointspeter12323 comments

This was by far the best hackathon I've ever attended. It was awesome seeing the people you admire like sama and Justin Kan hacking away with you into the early morning.

The event itself was well-managed as well. Big ups to Kat and Dave for their hard work. Looking forward to next year!

As a YC Hacks participant, the most striking part of being there was just how genuinely friendly and helpful everyone was. Really a great experience.

Agreed, such a breath of fresh air from the feeling you get on the internets. It felt like my school's ACM office during finals week!

While I understand that it's done with good intentions, I don't think that the presence of a Bounce House and T-Shirt Cannon at the hackathon helps dispel the perception that Silicon Valley hackers simply behave like teenagers all the time.

I would say that the majority of participants last weekend were actually students. It would be interesting to see the actual numbers.

I'm actually inclined to agree with you. The hackathon was very directly modeled off of college hackathons.

Seems like the t-shirt cannon was actually a student robotics team (and it looks like they hire out the device for promotional events). I'd give them a pass.

http://www.team254.com

I think that kind of thing demonstrates less that Valley hackers act like teenagers, and more that hacker culture is more open/informal than the typical rigid tech corporation.

So the best way to distinguish between "open" companies that are hip to "hacker culture" (whatever that means) and "rigid" corporations is to look for a bounce house or t-shirt cannon?

I guess you can't fool anyone with a foosball table these days?

It's not necessarily the best/only way, but it adds a sense of fun and informality that a larger corporation wouldn't want/need to have in order to attract employees.

I think I'm starting to understand. To attract desirable employees, startups don't need to be working on challenging problems or serving interesting markets, they just need to incorporate objects that you might find at a birthday party for children.

I didn't get involved with either of those activities as I was too busy hacking but I thought they added some more unique fun to the event. They were out of the way, behind the general hacking area so if you weren't seeking them out, you could have easily missed them.

The average age is probably closer to ~21 and who doesn't like a Bounce house, throw in a few clowns an animals and call it YC carnival.

Does that perception need dispelling?

Neoteny is a real, and valuable, thing – especially in times of rapid change – and teens aren't all bad.

:( There is nothing wrong with people doing stuff for the sole purpose of fun.

Great hackathon. Really didn't like the expo style presentations though.

I totally disagree; I absolutely loved the elementary school science fair approach. You could actually engage with the teams behind every interesting project, and skip past all the usual 2-3 minute bland, boring on-stage pitches from bleary-eyed and brain-drained builders.

It was pretty hectic and it was hard to hear the people behind the table. I don't mind the science fair style, just tough with so many people in that amount of space. Folks outside also seemed to get a lot less foot traffic.

More women to men ratio that expected ;-)

What was the ratio? 20%?

Too many downvotes. Please be tolerant with other cultures.

It was the winky face.

Definitely was the creepy winky face.

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