Welcome to The Treehouse Show.

The Treehouse Show is our weekly conversation with the Treehouse community.

[SOUND] This week on the show, we're taking a look at a few of our favorite

recent questions from the Treehouse community.

Let's talk about hackathons and coding jams.

Pranjal Agnihotri asks a very forward thinking question about hackathons.

I just wanted to ask is there any kind of preparation you do before going to

a hackathon?

Excellent question, Pranjal.

Now first though, if you haven't heard of a hackathon yet,

it's a get together of coders who build a project.

And the goal of the hackathon, or codefest, is to produce usable software.

Its name comes from the portmanteau of hack and marathon.

Hackathons usually have a specific focus, often surrounding a specific

programming language or framework or, sometimes, they're all about a topic.

A pretty rad one that happens here in Portland is called Science Hack Day,

where scientists work together with programmers to build cool projects

that they pitch over a long weekend.

Oftentimes, at these hackathons,

there is a prize involved, which helps add to the fun and the competitive nature.

Michael Hulet offers some advice about how to prepare.

He says make sure you have the software installed, because very often WiFi

is pretty bad, and you don't wanna waste time trying to download things.

Michael also says to approach things with an open mind and

a friendly attitude, which helps to answer the second part of Pranjal's question

about finding team members.

Now most of these hackathons work with a pitch presented by people with some ideas

and you choose your team that way.

Michael also talks about his go-bag for when he attends Hackfest,

which has the obvious laptop, phone, and their chargers.

But also suggests some things that you might not have thought of like a change of

clothes and a toothbrush.

He also recommends headphones and a pillow.

Nice thinking, Michael.

Pranjal also asked if this is welcome to newbs, or newbies,

people who are new to programming.

Well, absolutely.

In fact, there are some that are even made for that.

Michael talks about several times he won a hackathon with people on his team

who had never written a single line of code.

Now if you're curious about why you might want to attend one of these.

I asked our resident hackathon expert, James Churchill, about the benefits.

He said, collaboration.

You get to collaborate with other devs at different experience levels

you might not normally get to work with.

It provides a goal.

If not having an idea about what to code is your problem,

hackathons could be the solution.

If you struggle like I do,

sometimes you have projects that you would never release without a deadline.

Does that sound like fun?

Well, check one out.

We've included some links in the notes attached to this video.

Do you have hackathon tips?

Join the discussion.

Our next question from the community is a pretty important one.

What do you all like to jam on during your coding?

That might seem like a bit of a silly question, but

it's actually a pretty important one.

Now oftentimes you need to block out external noise,

especially if you're working in an open office space, or worse yet, a coffee shop.

Some people actually get so

used to the background of a coffee shop that they want to simulate it.

Now there's an app for that.

If you wanna simulate being in a coffee shop, I highly recommend Coffitivity.

Steven Parker recommends prog rock, which makes sense.

It's so mathy.

Tianni Myers suggests instrumentals only for blogging and coding.

He also suggests the band Tycho.

I love that band too, Tianni.

We asked our staff what they like to listen to.

Now Ben Deitch, who've you seen around the Android and data halls of Treehouse,

digs him some Herbie Hancock, in particular the album Chameleon.

James Churchill, our .NET and JavaScript musician, admits to being a sucker for

the good old soundtrack.

He likes the Lord of the Rings one for coding.

He also recommends picking up a band and

listening to their entire catalog chronologically.

Nick Pettit like his peace and quite and usually codes in silence.

Nick Hampton, who helps out with our JavaScript Techdegree students,

listens to podcasts when reviewing projects.

But when he's coding, he hits up Bonnie Raitt, Tracy Chapman, Madonna, and Hole.

Sounds like an amazing concert to attend.

That'd give him something to talk about.

Pasan says he spends 60% of his time trying to find the perfect track and

then never finds it.

Then he says he rushes to finish stuff minutes before deadline.

Now Rob, who heads up our support team, suggests Nobuo Uematsu,

who is a video game composer, or some early Muse Records.

Now, personally, for me, it depends.

If I'm writing documentation, I do like to listen to bands that are singing in

a different language than my native tongue.

I love the band The Very Best out of Malawi for this.

If I have a deadline, without a doubt, I crank up some punk rock and

try to keep pace with Minor Threat or some early Fugazi.

What do you listen to?

Jump on the forum post and let everybody know.

[SOUND] Thanks for watching The Treehouse Show.

To get in touch with the show, reach out to me on Twitter or

email the show at show@teamtreehouse.com.

See you in the community.