# Big thinking & hackathons

By [Bayka](https://paragraph.com/@bayka) · 2023-01-31

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One of the traits of large companies is "big thinking". By this, I mean they plan on a grand scale, measuring their progress in months, quarters, and years. This can be a dangerous habit for a startup founder, since they should be thinking and acting on a daily, weekly basis. So how can one learn to unlearn this?

Hackathons have been a great help to me. First we attended external ones, but eventually we started organizing internal ones. A hackathon is a 24-hour marathon of programming aimed at building a basic version of a product that solves a real problem. Thanks to hackathons, I learned how to code in Python and NodeJS. I also made lifelong connections with some of the best people I've ever worked with. It even led to my brother dancing with a drip counter in a hospital ;-)

Why do they work?

1.  **Constraints**: Constraints help to spur creativity. Strict time limits taught us to find simple solutions that worked.
    
2.  **Focus**: The whole team focuses on one product and there are no "what if" scenarios or "nice to have" features.
    
3.  **Competition**: competition between the teams can really boost energy and enthusiasm
    

Advice to my younger self
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Use hackathons to start working on new products and big features, hire great people, and sometimes even earn prizes to start a new business - like we did with RuBeacon, which was founded using my share of the $100K PayPal hackathon award.

![Facebook Hackathon](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/761f9c603f41876d961940c33a830b87d31a7dbcceb14e8807d41a28fd0fe59e.jpg)

Facebook Hackathon

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*Originally published on [Bayka](https://paragraph.com/@bayka/big-thinking-hackathons)*