Hacker Dojos Aren’t Factories for “Idea” People | Hacker News Reader

Hacker Dojos Aren’t Factories for “Idea” People

danielmiessler.com

37 pointsdanielrm2614 comments

What I would do if I was on the receiving end of that conversation:

Get really excited and started coding on your laptop. Code the entire thing and do a great job. Make it really shine for the guy, follow up on his comments, tell him "excellent idea, why didn't I think of that". Do it all locally. After an hour or two of this, the idea guy should be smugly confident about how awesome he is and what a good idea coming to the dojo was. When it is all finished, start to walk away or start working on something else. The idea guy will probably ask something along the lines of "Wait, can I haz it?"

Then quote an obscene hourly rate and ride out the storm. "Oh, you mean you actually want to have this? Sorry, I thought this was just a practice exercise or something. It will cost about $300 for me to send it to you." At the very least, he won't be so assuming anymore.

That is so mean...and clever.

If you worked a few hours on it and it was good, I'd happily pay $300 for your labor.

That's sort of the idea ;). But, especially after seeing it done in a couple hours, Mr. Hollywood is not likely to know it's worth $300.

Yeah, my response was fairly tongue in check, but it isn't hard to imagine a scenario where the idea guy starts grumbling and shells out whatever you ask.

PS: Hacker Dojo is a hacker space in Mountain View. "Hacker space" is the word you're looking for.

And even then, not exactly. The Hacker Dojo is sortof unusual among hacker spaces in that it's almost entirely based in software, with a little electronics. Most of them include sewing, metal working, any sort of DIY stuff. Noisebridge in San Fran isn't far away and is more in line.

I think hackers by nature weed out non-technical people pretty quickly. I love hackerdojo and noisebridge. I think this post is great in that it highlights what it really comes down to: a misunderstanding on the person as to what a hackerspace is.

It's about educating those that come in that people pride themselves on getting stuff done.

Also I don't want to discourage any non-coders visiting these hackerspaces. Please come by! But keep in mind that if you are after someone to do work for you, you'll fail pretty bad. If you are here to learn, then by all means, take a seat, I'll even help you out.

I see OP imagining himself doing some LOTR style "You Shall Not Pass" to one of these evil 'idea' types at a hacker space. Situation portrayed seems unlikely and somewhat contrived, i.e. I would hope that most hackers would be independently capable of fending off someone "...from Hollywood...".

Not contrived. That was the actual dialog, as it happened, within like five minutes of it happening.

So far as I can tell, Hacker Dojo is one particular place in the Bay Area. Do others exist in other areas?

Yes, perhaps "dojo" is a term for the Bay Area ones, but there are other groups across the country where people get together to code collaboratively.

Actually, the more common name is hackerspace (or hackspace), and they are quite common all over the world:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackerspace#Notable_hackerspace...

Some people I know are trying to get one started in Cape Town (South Africa) modeled on the bay area one.

http://www.codebridge.co.za/

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