[adambenz]

My company started running hardware hackathons this year to connect with our community, etc., and we are doing 10 events in total across the US. After our first event we realized that conditioning hackers/makers/learners to build stuff that is "commercially worthy" or "prize worthy" takes away from what we set on doing: create a fun and safe place to learn, explore, to push the envelope, to create for the sake of creation. I totally agree with you that we should all take a step back from all the commercial/ego/noise culture and connect as teachers, learners and a community first. We noticed that the more we emphasize the real culture of our events, the better the connection, the magic and creation. Plus the real cool kids don't have to act cool...they just are. Long term, you can't fake authenticity.