Yahoo! Hackday lessons

Lessons learned at Yahoo!'s Hackday '06

1. Geeks cannot give demos.

   Not quite completely true, but mostly. Granted, the focus on here is more for the technology, so presentation shouldn't be a top priority, but it's still an issue.

2. Geeks can develop some really cool shit.

   Completely true, but not necessarily everyone. Some of the projects were fairly lame, or not very exciting; others were entertaining; and some were fabulous. The presentation, however, affected my opinion of the project.

   My favorites so far are the useless color picker gadget, Ben's print posters selected from flickr photos tagged with keywords (the keyword typed into the printer's interface, and voila, pictures!), and Jordan's save-any-file-using-del.icio.us.

3. I need to think smaller when I work at these things

   My first idea was to create a new event finding utility for the UPA's Where to Play events page. I thought that would be uninteresting to most of the people here, so I opted instead to build a AJAX driven, Wordpress theme generator using the YUI CSS class.

   Anyone else see the problem with this project? If you said, "inexperience with all three of the technologies selected," you win a prize. I managed to get about 30% of the way done last night, working until about 3:30.

   When I arrived back here at Yahoo! this afternoon, I managed to get about 40% of the way done with the first project in the half hour I worked on the maps for the UPA.

   So, here I am with two unfinished projects, and no project to submit to the demo. I should have just gone with the one that was best for me. I really need to think smaller.

4. I need to watch my voice.

   I write as I think. What I read here tomorrow, next week, next month, next year is my voice of today. I can't say I particularly like what I'm reading these last few weeks. My voice seems harsh, even to me the day after I've written the words.

   I'm guessing it has to done with my general unhappiness with where I am in life right now, and my current inability to move beyond the blockers. Various health issues (my eye scar is itching, which isn't helping my general worry) are also becoming concerns. Good news with that, though, is that I managed to lose 2 pounds this month. Yay, me!

5. I need to be more outgoing.

   I'm convinced Kris is clueless when he says I'm a social butterfly. Maybe at ultimate, but not at places like here. I know various people, but for reasons unknown to me, I'm unable to meet new people recently. I suspect it has to do with the previous item.

I'm sure there are more lessons. There always are.