[13:57 March 11, 2019] Yangon

Ok, this post is going to be a mess. My sincere apologies. lol. Just puking out everything now and then.

Travel + Technology

Got to see and listen to many people, and about personal lives of a few. The future of youth. Energy. Environment. Mentor. Senior. Junior. Local tech community. Education. Rural area. Down to earth people. Non profit. Civil acts. Community services. Better community. Anthropology. Got to see amazing staff culture from YOMA and Flymya. I have also been into BOD Tech, Flymya and Get (Read more).

Finlithack at Phandeeyar 8 - 10 March

I really thank the bro who invited me to the team and other bros who were in the teams. Htet was the best, of course. More about FinLit Hackathon

This hackathon thing should be written into a separated post. lol. This is becoming a mess.

I still remember my first Hackathon, probably in 2014-2015 I guess.

Dumped Thoughts

There are a few more topics I want to write about, depression, vegetarianism/veganism, social media. So many questions. Thoughts. Retrospections. Gradually, everything in the head will fade away as dreams after nights. What matters? What doesn't? Bigger picture. Source of issues around the nation. Ethnic minorities. 07:59 March 11, 2019 Ah, shoot. I thought those thoughts would fade away like dreams last night. They didn't seem to. Maybe, I didn't get enough sleep. The time-machine bubble I am giving this phenomenon a name, the time-machine bubble effect. lol. Here is the best possible definition I could come up with: A situation where a person who believes they have seen the future or believes they can work on it, is wearing a bubble astronaut helmet. Those people cannot easily be distracted from their mission. The bubble is powerful. As if they came back from the future wearing the bubble, they are pretty determined to fix the present issues. I myself was once wearing that bubble. It burst when I hit the wall of reality and that hurts. Now, I desperately need a new bubble. Downside. Missing out from Reality. Wishful thinking. Some people have been to the future. Or some have had the vision of it.

23:54 Mar 12, 2019

Hackathons and Me

October 23, 2015 My first hackathon. HackingEDU. I was super excited and couldn’t even sleep for like a few days after that. I didn’t get to build anything, and I, along with a friend, was in shock to see thousand of coders coding whole nights, some were as young as 13 and some got dropped off by their parents as if it was a playground and only to be picked up after the event. There was Sam Altman and Salman Khan. Many university/college students flew to California from all across the US. Some are high schoolers. One project I remember was a senior who sat next to us, built an image recognition sensor where the sensor can read the blocks with alphabets; A, B, C, etc. on it and those alphabets represent pieces of programming, like for loops, variables, etc. Basically, like drag and drop programming but with real blocks. Don’t remember exactly, wooden or plastic.

July 15, 2016
AT&T Hacks Oracle Park

July 23, 2016
Spectra Hackathon was there as a volunteer, at Youtube Headquarter. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.545963605614629&type=1&l=6de9864a8e

Aug 27-28, 2016
Another Hackathon was at Plug and Play center. Since I didn’t have any plan on building anything, I just talked to as many people as I can. I got to talk a few students from Singapore, who were doing an internship in the US. And I just talked to a few seniors who were like tech veterans and they explained to me what money laundering is and how it can be prevented using technology. Interesting thing is that tech veterans were also there to join the hackathon. Isn’t it an amazing culture? https://www.usbank.com/newsroom/stories/innovative-bill-splitting-app-wins-think-big-hack-small-hackathon.html

Sep 10, 2016
TechCrunch Hackathon It was fun cos we took a break to eat out Tacos with these people.

And there you go, series of VR filming hackathons at 360°ED. At Tamwe Plaza and at Dulwich college.

June 30- July 1, 2018, AngelHack Yangon This was fun too. With interns from Softhatch.

I have always been wishing it would be cool if we have hackathons here and then more hackathons here. Here they are now. But now I am like screw it. The hackathon is just a hackathon and most products coming out of hackathons are not even going to be kept working on. Hackathon is just a part of marketing strategy for corporate. Of course, who cares, as long as they give out freebies like t-shirts and stickers.

What the hell, Saw. It is true, most products are not getting built after the hackathons. But there are still many good reasons for hackathons. It is refreshing. It is fun. It brings people together in the community. It encourages newcomers. The product doesn’t need to be grand or extravagant, or anything. It can just be anything working, any prototype. Doesn’t even have to be an MVP. It could be a presentation. It could be a mockup. It could be just a design or a business plan. Don’t stop yourself there, let your imagination flow freely. It brings inspiration. What the fuck is wrong with you Saw. What just happened to you. I could see myself with the darkness devouring me slowly, growing skepticism on everything anything. What the hell did I just go through? lol. I thought whatever I went through won’t impact me this much. It actually does. Geez. I hate this weird feeling and situation.

Yes, I admit, I miss all the friends I got separated apart from, those I had to move on cos I no longer had the privilege(lifestyle, living standard), time and resources to stay in touch, those who drifted apart,

But what can I do? There still one dream to meet each and everyone of them again in my life.

Or probably that is just how life is. Rule number one: Don’t ever let your childhood spirit die.