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Ask HN: how much time did you *really* spend on that "Show HN: My weekend hack"

6 points by codegeek ↗ HN
This is a genuine question/curiousity that I have. I frequently come across "Show HN" submissions that claim to have done it over the weekend. But looking at the apps makes me wonder if it really just took a weekend. Wondering if ppl would share the actual time taken to build an MVP/app whatever.

I do understand that many CRUD apps can be hacked over a weekend. But some of the mor real world stuff that is shared, I highly doubt it. or is it ?

10 comments

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TheMonarch
I doubt a lot of it too. Same thing as people who underexaggerate how much they studied for a test in high school and college.
Tipzntrix
It's a lot of standing on the shoulders of giants. People take a new framework or library that abstracts things at such a high level like making a chart just by doing chart ((0.1, 0.2, 0.3), (1, 2, 3)). This work has been done by someone else awhile ago, and they can fit them together like LEGO to create something cool in a relatively short period of time
shurane
And that's much of how API hackathons work. You have all these really fleshed out LEGO blocks. You just need people to come up with interesting ideas. So you give the people API access. And see what they come up with in 24 hours. And a lot of the stuff is just proof-of-concept. It's not like, let me polish this hack and unittest the hell out of it before I release. It's all make and break and testing the waters to see if other people are interested in it too.
noonespecial
My latest: controlling small appliances with my iPhone using qr codes to connect to them.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4865290

Thought of it on a Wednesday, started Friday night, finished Sunday night (and took video), posted when I woke up Monday. Total hours, probably about 8. I think I spent maybe 2 distracted hours Monday morning writing it up, but that may have had something to do with my straying into 'manifesto' territory.

unconed
With the right lego pieces, you can do a lot. All depends on what libraries you can use. It could also be they're re-using stuff they work on day-to-day anyway.
Mz
You remind me of the guy who made up a t-shirt that said something like "I survived snow-pocalypse". He slapped it together and got it online really quickly, it went viral (in part because he jumped on it, as it was a time sensitive item), and he made a good chunk of change in short order. When asked, he indicated he had longstanding experience with both making t-shirts and doing stuff online.

So, yes, he did it "in a weekend" (in a day or two, though I don't know if it was literally Saturday and Sunday). But there was many years of prior experience which helped make that possible.

[dead] witoldc
How true. Usually, it's buried somewhere in the fine print that their uncle is a tshirt print maker, dad is a wholesaler and they have done different tshirts in the past and have a big blog with a big audience to promote on. The devil's in the details.

For HN projects, people are also probably reusing their own prior work and code. They might have done something very similar for a different industry, or tweeking the purpose and application of something old to create something new.

anujkk
I took me 3 weekends(6 days) to do my weekend(s) project - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4753200

I thought it is wrong to call it a weekend hack, so I called it "Weekend(s) project" implying it took more than one week.

Later I felt I should've called it just "My Side Project". Does it matter how much time it took to develop? Who cares?

codegeek
I like how to titled your post with the (s).