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Some Hackathon Hustlers Make Their Living From Corporate Coding Contests (bloomberg.com) 38

Posted by msmash from the such-is-a-life dept.
Some coders go from one marathon hacking session to another, subsisting on prize money and schwag. From a feature article on Bloomberg: Peter Ma looked around his San Francisco condo and realized he'd won everything in it. His flat-screen TV, home theater system, 3D printers, phones, tablets, computers and furniture were either hackathon prizes or purchased with hackathon earnings. Stashed under his leather couch -- which he'd bought with an Amazon gift card -- was a thick stack of 2- and 3-foot-long cardboard checks commemorating his most cherished wins. "The only non-schwag I have are shoes," he said. With his gray hoodie and close-cropped goatee, 33-year-old Ma looks like any of the thousands of computer programmers roaming the city, but he's part of an elite corps. He and about a dozen friends travel the hackathon circuit. They build apps, connected devices and other products during all-night, fiercely competitive programming contests where sleep is scarce and caffeine is plentiful. The sessions are usually sponsored by corporations, and top prizes mean serious cash. Some of the hackers have jobs. Some do contracting work. Some have corporate sponsors. Almost all of them are working on a pet startup idea. For Ma and a few others, hackathons are a job. Ma knows he would make more money if he had a more traditional career. He just doesn't want one.
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Some Hackathon Hustlers Make Their Living From Corporate Coding Contests More

Some Hackathon Hustlers Make Their Living From Corporate Coding Contests

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  • The Gig Economy... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @01:23PM (#54171603)

    ... were sleep is scarce and caffeine is plentiful.

    Ah yes, "The Gig Economy". Hope he's saving some of that cash-ola because that scarce sleep and lots-o-coffee is going to get old and he's going to run out of steam with no healthcare and no retirement savings in a "Gig Economy" where he's no longer in the desirable / hirable age bracket regardless of his uber-leet hacking skills...

    Ma knows he would make more money if he had a more traditional career. He just doesn't want one.

    Please, tell me more!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Please, tell me more!

      Let's hope he has carefully paid his taxes on all those winnings. No matter how free something is and no matter how you earn it, Uncle Sam, Aunty State and Cousin City want their cut. Often first.

    • Having no experience in the IT/computer/beep-boop industry or bay area, I'd assume he's got to be impressing some people who could offer him a more steady job. From what I can tell, having a computer, clothing, and a space to sleep near the bay area is enough for a bunch of monied morons to fling cash at you.

      This is not a defense of the gig economy or his choices, just this guy in particular in that particular location doesn't seem like he's disadvantaged in the slightest.

      • Having no experience in the IT/computer/beep-boop industry or bay area, I'd assume he's got to be impressing some people...

        You keep thinking that... Sorry, no.... In the "Gig Economy" you are a resource, a thing to be used, and expanded. When you are done, you are done, although it may take some time for you to realize it.

        • In case it wasn't clear, I'm not looking at his industry with desperate optimism. I'm not working in that industry. I'll take your word for it that once he hits 40, the computer masters will declare him useless and he'll be put out to pasture in Sacramento or something, but I'm not fooling myself about an industry I'm not in at all.

          • 'Best Backhanded Reply Award' goes to interkin3tic Congratulations! How do you feel? And what are your plans for the future?!

  • I wonder if these hackers would have more or less money if they put all that time coding their hacks into coding projects that make money? If you spend 100 hours to earn a $5000 prize, is that really any different than working for a real company at $50/hr?

    • If you spend 100 hours to earn a $5000 prize, is that really any different than working for a real company at $50/hr?

      Yes, you don't get healthcare and benefits. But you have FREEDOM!

      • Re:It's still work! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @01:48PM (#54171811) Journal

        So, what you're really saying is "healthcare and benefits" are a form of slavery. Keep that in mind when you vote next year.

        • By that logic, so is pretty much everything that in any way limits your freedom to just randomly decide to f*ck off and do something else without consequence, including home ownership, marriage/kids, or steady jobs. My salaried job gives me steady pay (that I use to buy food, shelter, etc), health insurance, and a variety of other benefits. Does that mean I'm a slave to the company I work for? Only if you want to twist the meaning to an extreme amount.

          Because in the end, I am free to decide tomorrow that

          • That is why I find it best to do what you love for work! But you have to also work at a place where you like the people and environment.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by crgrace ( 220738 )

          woosh!

    • I think there's something to be said for variety. If you start a side project to make money you have to commit to spending time on that project. With a hackathon they can just drop something before getting bogged down by things like technical debt. Hackathons are the perfect job for someone who can't commit to one thing. It's like being on a skunkworks team, but most companies don't staff a permanent skunkworks team.

    • If you spend 100 hours to earn a $5000 prize, is that really any different than working for a real company at $50/hr?

      For a real company, I'm guaranteed the $50/hr even if I'm sick that day.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hawguy ( 1600213 )

        If you spend 100 hours to earn a $5000 prize, is that really any different than working for a real company at $50/hr?

        For a real company, I'm guaranteed the $50/hr even if I'm sick that day.

        It's different because you can work in your pajamas if you want to, and after you spend your 5 days of hacking you can take 2 weeks off before the next one and still earn the same money as the guy that works 40 hours/week.

        And yeah, steady employment ensures a steady paycheck, but contracting (or whatever this hackathon "employment" is called) leads to a more flexible lifestyle - if you want to spend a month in costa rica, you can just go between gigs (or work remotely)

        • Many fulltime positions let you work remotely. Contracting isn't as flexible as you think: you are always working OR trying to get the next contracting job. You just don't "take off" for a month.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

          If you spend 100 hours to earn a $5000 prize, is that really any different than working for a real company at $50/hr?

          For a real company, I'm guaranteed the $50/hr even if I'm sick that day.

          It's different because you can work in your pajamas if you want to, and after you spend your 5 days of hacking you can take 2 weeks off before the next one and still earn the same money as the guy that works 40 hours/week.

          Doesn't that assume you win, though? If you lose, you've basically worked for free.

        • It's different because you can work in your pajamas if you want to

          There are plenty of dev jobs where you can wear whatever you want. I wear sweats or shorts and t-shirts / hoodies to work every day. I doubt I'm inline for any promotion to upper management, but I'm comfortable. I'm sure I could wear pajamas if I wanted.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What I wonder more is: while Peter Ma may have gotten all his swag from his hackathon wins or earnings, does he also pay his rent from hackathon wins as well?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      I wonder if company employees will purposefully code in bugs, so they can share the money with the people who find those bugs, a new kind of insider trading ;).

  • I can relate (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Verdatum ( 1257828 ) on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @01:51PM (#54171827)
    I once won a hackathon in my category, snagging $2k in prize money for me and a couple friends. We were doing a hardware project, and spent so much on materials that we didn't come close to anything rembling a profit. But we weren't trying to profit or even trying to win; we were just making something we would've made on our own anyway. But the experience made me wonder about the possibility for this. I think the biggest issues are that you'd need to be in the bay-area with the lowest rent you could find, or learn to travel really cheap. My area doesn't have nearly enough events. But after attending my 2nd event, it quickly became obvious that there are things you can do that would enable you to gain an edge, potentially allowing you to win a category despite not having the best submission in that category. The larger sponsors are frequently judges, and PR is obviously an important thing. So frequently, it's more about doing a project that has a feel-good narrative with the potential to make headlines than it is about writing quality code, or writing code that does something genuinely novel, as opposed to code that just has the appearance of novelty, or about making a product that's actually feasible.

    The implications sort of alarmed us. We don't particularly like the idea of competing against people exploiting these potentials, acting like they are doing a community service, when really motivated by fame & fortune. But we also decided that we don't really care about winning. For us, a hackathon is a motivation to get off our asses and work really hard on something cool we want to create instead of just wasting yet another weekend on YouTube and video games. If we win, any prize money is just gonna go into the next crazy project we want to see exist.

  • Did you say "prize money and schwag"? Uh, what

  • I have an amusing story to tell along these lines - many years ago I went to JavaOne a number of years in a row.

    Well one of these times I was just strolling down the sidewalk in SF after having gone to some sessions, when someone approached me on the sidewalk, asking if I wanted to enter a coding contest. They didn't have many people entering and they really wanted more programmers participating - it was a contest to write some useful J2ME service in an hour or two.

    Well I didn't really know J2ME well, but

  • hackathons for my company. The people that win come in with a pre-built solution of some sort, and then do some thin integration with whatever the sponsor is pushing. They carry that same solution around to every hackathon and use it over and over again. The idea that people come in with a blank slate and pull ideas out of their ass then write 10k lines of code to back it up is false. It's much less impressive than you might think looking at it from the outside.

    • Ya, the judges for these things are usually suits so it's pretty easy to pull the wool over their eyes. Three years ago all you had to do was use the term "Neural Network" for an instant win. These days, it's writing a quick Oculus app. The sad thing is, it makes it almost impossible to win these things honestly. In order to win, a competitor needs to make some grandiose claims that they'd never be able to back up. Otherwise they'll just get beat out by the teams focusing on smoke and mirrors.
  • You put a bunch of hackers in a room with an electronic prize. Wouldn't it be beneficial to have it bugged from a gov perspective?

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