after participating in 23 hackathons, i thought i’d get a glimpse of the other side
so I became a judge for Hack the Bias. While it was an incredible experience, it further confirmed a belief i’ve held about hackathons for a long time
for every winner, five equally brilliant projects walk away with nothing
and it’s so demotivating for a lot of hackers
that feeling comes from outcome bias, the trap of believing that the value of your work is solely determined by the prize you did or didn’t get
Ironically, a place designed for dreams to flourish instead feels like a place where they die
So how can we mitigate that bias and make “losing” more rewarding?
i think what Hack the Bias did should be done everywhere. They shared our feedback and scores with all the hackers regardless of the outcome
in most cases, what stings the most is not the loss itself, but the silence that follows it
rewarding the top 10% is important, but what about the other 90% who put just as much effort into their projects? Don’t they deserve to know how they could be part of that 10% next time?
it will take more effort from the judges and organizers, but it would leave everyone who put effort into their projects with something that is even more valuable than a prize: clarity
for whoever participated in this hackathon, i’d highly encourage you to look at the feedback and scores we gave you and reach out to me if you have any questions
in my pov, a hackathon is just the first step to building a cool project
most of my projects with Orbit Labs (like Audora) started as hackathon projects
some won, some lost, but regardless of the outcome, i took what i learned and continued iterating
in other words, the real building starts now
P.S. this was a pic of us going to the judging room. Felt so much 2nd hand intimidation as we walked into the room full of hackers waiting for us lol
P.P.S. shoutout Zaid Ahmed, Joy Wang, Orin Zaman, and the whole Robogals UCalgary team who brought this event to life
P.P.P.S. Ty for the food it was amazing❤️
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after participating in 23 hackathons, i thought i’d get a glimpse of the other side
so I became a judge for Hack The Bias. While it was an incredible experience, it sometimes feels like hackathons are the place where dreams go to die
for every winner, five equally brilliant projects walk away with nothing
i saw so many amazing projects that got no recognition, which, speaking from experience, is so demotivating
But that feeling is just outcome bias, the trap of believing that the value of your work is solely determined by the prize you did or didn’t get
The unfortunate truth is that there will always be more projects that deserved to win than the number of prizes we can give
and in so many cases, “losing” doesn’t mean your project wasn’t good enough. It just didn’t fit our definition of success
For all we know, we just let the next UCalgary unicorn walk away with nothing today
regardless of the outcome, hackathons are the BEST way to test out an idea. In my pov, a hackathon is just the first step to building a cool project
most of my projects with Orbit Labs started as hackathon projects
some won, some lost, but that didn’t stop me from continuing to work on them
so for whoever participated in this hackathon, i’d highly encourage you to look at the feedback and scores we gave you and feel free to reach out if you have more questions.
P.S. this was a pic of us going to the judging room. Felt so much 2nd hand intimidation as we walked into the room full of hackers waiting for us lol