Old-timers: The Big Bang Theory of Hackathons

Happy Thor’s Day, everyone! ??

I was coming here to celebrate a monumental win; instead, I’m taking my hat off to a delightful defeat.

Earlier I’d written about the Northern Clique Hackathon hosted in the cold forests of Canada. This is it: launched on Monday 4 AM EDT and closed this morning at 4. It’s an exhausting marathon with an endless sliding window of three problem sets 8 hours each. The rest of the rules are quite common: first submission free, additional submissions accrue penalties, a maximum of four submissions allowed, and one more at the "empty" closing - the last 8 hours. Teams must have five registered members plus an optional spare and no substitutions allowed.

Yours truly was the spare on his team. As the sole member residing in North America, and juggling the nine-month-old future hacker at home, my role was mostly as a backup, unfit for a primary seat this year. Our team’s average age is at a cool 50+, making us the Gandalfs and Dumbledores of the hackathon world. Our most potent rivals are those pesky 30-somethings fueled by youth, Red Bull, adrenaline and profanity.

The last 8 hours, known as "empty", are always legendary. Picture an online carnival of business owning hackers, a 'Digital Mardi Gras,' if you will, better resembling sailors' beaching than a civilized gathering. Every year I am equally impressed by how violent the nerds can get. Discord was ablaze with very colorful language, dark qooey humor, and more than a few questionable beverage choices visible through the cams. The prize is club's coveted veto points for managing internal competition and disputed SaaS workups parking lot. At this point, our team seemed poised for greatness - or at least a spot in the coveted top four. We were expecting to go out with a bang! The hidden back-thought of every hacker: "My code rocks and your code sux!" Perhaps finally that first place! I was quick to celebrate and brag before hitting the sack: I didn’t stay for the empty being incoherent and too tired to breathe.

The Morning After

So, there I am, waking up at 5 AM, falling off my bed to a buzzing Discord filled with anticipation from my teammates across the pond. Drumroll, please… we didn’t make … anything. Not even close. Our noble wisdom endowed team ranked 13th out of 32. The lowest we ever scored. We basically got our silver backs handed to us by … a bunch of kids. As I pondered my existence, humanity, dignity, and questioned my thinking and coding skills, I realized something as morbid tiredness swept over me again. I had spent myself entirely despite promising not to, and perhaps it was my time to hang up my keyboard on all private competitions for good. In this we had a silent and a little sad consensus. Since only the top four are announced, there will not be any record of our last battle in the club’s minutes.

The Silver (back) Lining

So why am I so sunny about losing? Simple. There’s an old saying that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and always learn. Despite all the preparation, we might not have won this hackathon, not even an honorable mention, but we did win insights, camaraderie, and a boatload of vulgar laughs. And let’s not forget, age might bring a slower thinking speed, but it also brings wisdom, resilience, and a knack for dad and mom jokes that can lighten up any coding session.

So, here’s to the Gandalfs and Dumbledores everywhere! May our code be ever bug-free, and our spirits forever young. ??