A Reflection on my 2022 hackathon experiences.

In 2022:

• I joined a virtual hackathon sponsored by a Harvard alum. Hacked IRL in Mexico and was among the top 10 finalists out of 92 teams winning four awards in specific categories and I hacked in Colombia winning Best Mobile App.

By hacking, I mean joining a 36 hour marathon of non-stop coding. Only getting six hours of cumulative sleep during the entire weekend. The night before submission, I wonder why I do this to myself. With little to no sleep and so much physical and mental discomfort. However, once the MVP has been submitted, I am consumed with so much joy and fulfillment that I was part of a team that made an idea come to life. It is truly addicting. Hence why I hacked three times this year, twice under Eth Global in LATAM.

Hackathons force an individual to think strategically while building efficiently with time and resource constraints. The resource that was limited during my last hackathon set in Bogota, Colombia was the wifi — a very essential resource in software development. I was going to different corners of the convention center trying to access the wifi. Once I did access it from time to time, it was fickle. I felt useless so my team’s exit strategy was to work a couple blocks away at the Hilton hotel lobby. Many others such as competing teams followed for they too had the same issue.

During this hackathon, I intended to be one of the two back-end engineers utilizing Solidity for building smart contracts but the wifi issue resulted in significant loss of time. I pivoted to front-end development even though front-end wasn’t my specialty. I collaborated with our lead designer on her design prototypes suggesting color schemes, fonts and logos. Not realizing how valuable this collaboration was. I worked with new tools such as Figma and dove into React.js for the third time this year. I realized, I fucking love design. “The immigrant in me feels compelled to do back-end” I told my team. Quite frankly, I just love making an idea come to life doesn’t matter how. It’s been my drug for as long as I can remember.

So after three hackathons, one virtual, a 5 day trip to Mexico and a 10 day trip to Colombia, I vowed to myself to “take it easy.” While hackathons are a great way to create an MVP in 36 hours, learn new skills and network with like minded folks and sponsors it isn’t a sustainable way to build.

I’m grateful for my experiences as a hacker. I am grateful for landing a freelance gig shortly after Colombia. Helping that particular client understand her codebase and provide consultation for next steps of her vision. Moving forward, I’m going to take a slower and more sustainable approach to making ideas come to life by refining skills I need at my current job and more importantly, prioritizing my energy and time well.

• **Hopefully this blogpost was comprehensible enough. I haven’t written in a while and trying to publish a post at least once a month.

With that being said, 2022 was a challenging yet wonderful year. If you made it this far in the post, I hope you have a Happy Holidays!