今日推薦開源項目：《大畫伯續作 purecss-character》
今日推薦英文原文：《Why Hackathons Drive Innovation》
今日推薦開源項目：《大畫伯續作 purecss-character》傳送門：項目鏈接
推薦理由：沒錯，那個傳說中使用純 CSS 和 HTML 作畫的大畫伯又出新作了，還是老樣子儘可能用 chrome 打開觀賞吧，因為作者為了藝術性完全沒考慮兼容性。而且這次與前作不同的是在原畫的基礎上還多出了膚色與發色的調整功能。
今日推薦英文原文：《Why Hackathons Drive Innovation》作者：Allen Helton
原文鏈接：https://medium.com/better-programming/why-hackathons-drive-innovation-1959f73ebfc8
推薦理由：介紹黑客馬拉松（Hackathon）在創新方面能夠帶來的好處
Why Hackathons Drive Innovation
Have you ever participated in a hackathon? Remember how your creativity ran wild? Learn how to harness that creativity to innovate
October.Leaves gradually getting their fall colors. Crisp morning air. Pumpkin spice everything. Hacktoberfest.
As the temperatures drop, our minds start shifting more and more toward the holidays, time off, family, and side projects.
It』s not a matter of if but when your developers are going to start drifting and their performance dropping. It』s not their fault — it comes with the season.
This is the time of year when we need to start getting creative to keep our development teams actively engaged. Time to get creative and have fun. Time for a hackathon.
A hackathon is a short event, typically ranging from one to three days, that focuses on building a creative solution to a known problem. Developers group together, come up with a plan, and hack something together in a short amount of time all in the spirit of competition.
The result is often a set of astonishingly innovative proof of concepts that never would have seen the light of day had you not set aside time for them.
But why? If it only took one or two days, why couldn』t these POCs just fit into the standard development schedule? We all could use a little jolt of innovation now and then.
The answer lies in the event itself. A hackathon provides an opportunity that some developers wouldn』t normally see. An opportunity to flex their creativity in ways their day-to-day doesn』t allow.
How so? Great question.
Creative Constraints
Whether they know it or not, developers are creative people. All they do all day is create.A hackathon typically has a theme to provide a challenge. The theme could be as simple as 「pumpkin spice,」 but it could also be something like 「Use a programming language you』ve never used before.」
Whatever the theme is, it』s going to force all the developers out of their comfort zone. They are going to be approaching problems differently than they normally would to make it fit the theme.
You will hear, 「I never thought of doing it that way」 and 「What if instead we do it like…?」 over and over throughout the course of the event. And do you know what that is? Innovation.
No 「Red Tape」
A hackathon is typically a greenfield project that goes from start to finish in just a handful of hours. This means that you cannot follow standard development procedures, practices, and sign-offs.This is an opportunity to hack something together in as short a period of time as possible. Get it working. Solve the problem. Don』t worry about doing it 「the right way.」
Removing all the red tape that comes with standard day-to-day development opens up opportunities to try new things. If there isn』t a barrier to development, why not try to build something like this? If it doesn』t work, throw it out and try a different way.
From a leadership point of view, what you』re doing here is providing the opportunity for your developers to learn. Let them try out a new pattern or a different programming language, or skip an entire development process altogether.
Hopefully, they will find something they love and ask to bring it into their daily routine to improve productivity. That is the objective of a hackathon after all: creating opportunity.
Shortened Timeline
When you have a deadline, creative solutions tend to surface as you inch closer and closer to the end. The work has to be done, but you don』t have much time to complete it.「I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.」 — Bill GatesPeople tend to get clever in crunch time. When the clock is ticking and you』re not done, you find ways of making it work. Necessity spurs innovation. So when you』re given two days to hack together a complete solution, get ready to see some innovative answers to your problem.
If you』re thinking about starting a hackathon, keep in mind that you can make an event too short to the point where it』s stressful instead of light pressure. Keep it balanced.
Try Out Something New
With a hackathon, you could be anything you want. Give team members the opportunity to try out roles they wouldn』t normally try in their day job. Let a developer be the manager. Give that QA an opportunity to do some graphic design. Maybe let the analyst try their hand at coding!You』d be surprised at what people can do if given the opportunity. Who knows? It could even awaken something inside of them and help point them to the next steps in their career!
Providing someone an outside opportunity by mixing up the roles is a great way to drive innovation by getting a fresh perspective. They don』t know how things operate in this role, so they might try something outside the box. They will likely approach the problem in a simpler way than an experienced veteran, which is a good thing!
A diverse approach to a problem will yield great results.
Encourage a role mix-up. Help the team get refreshed by turning their normal responsibilities on their head.
Competitive Edge
Not everyone is motivated by competition, but those who are tend to be extremists. I can speak to this from experience.There』s something about a little friendly competition that gets me more motivated than anything else. And after the event, I』m still riding on that motivation for at least a week, trying out all the new things I learned.
If you have people on your team or in your company who like a little competition, encourage them to participate in a hackathon. Teams competing against one another to come up with the best solution in a short amount of time… I』m going to have to organize one now just from writing that sentence.
Competition can bring out the best in someone. Creativity, leadership, and drive all flourish, which of course leads to innovative solutions.
How to Start
If I』ve convinced you to run a hackathon, great! Your developers and company will thank you for it. Here are some of the steps you will have to take to get organized:- Decide on the event』s length — Is this during work hours? How many workdays?
- Come up with a theme — Should it be related to work? Maybe it should just be fun for the first one.
- Find a partner — Sometimes partnering with another company will help with ideas and a creative niche.
- Decide on a prize — Keep those developers motivated! Have a prize for the winner.
- Set the date — Put it on the calendar, but don』t leak any details!
Whether you start a hackathon or choose to participate in one, there』s one outcome that is guaranteed to happen: You will have fun. So get out there and start innovating!
It』s not too late to sign up for Hacktoberfest, a month-long hackathon encouraging users to contribute to open source communities. Remember, the best time to start something new was yesterday. The second-best time is today.
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