After moving to New York, Alexis met innumerable NY geeks who were dismayed by the dearth of purely geek events in the city. Â Plenty of ostensibly geeky events were invaded by a glut of people who had big ideas, but were more interested in finding a programmer than building it themselves. We dreamt of creating a fun space where geeks, especially those who hadn't gone the startup route and needed the company of like-minded people, could roll up their sleeves without getting hassled or recruited--and so Hack Club was born.
Hack Club is an occasional gathering where geeks can meet each other and bond over the sheer joy of dreaming big, learning, and creating. A semi-underground enclave moving from hideout to hideout like in the movies, where making badass stuff is celebrated above all else. You won't get any fancy cheese platters here, but you won't get any business cards or slick-talking recruiters either. We want to help take you back to the weekends you spent in your parents' basement, madly coding on a constant drip of energy drinks.
We're going to try this out for the first time on Friday, 01/14/11, and this time we're partnering with LEGO, the best embodiment of the endless possibilities of creation we can think of. LEGO has supplied us with lots and lots of Mindstorms -- you, over the course of 12 hours, will supply us with robots that will compete against each other in a sporting event to be named at the beginning of the night. We, in turn, will be providing late-night pizza, caffeine in the form of Stay Puft marshmallows from our wonderful friends at Omni Consumer Products, and other life essentials to keep you going. The winner of the competition will get fame, glory, and plenty of Lego Mindstorms to take home.
tl;dr: New York geeks, come play with Legos on January 14th at a geek-only competition in a secret location!
UPDATE: THE PUZZLE IS UP!
Q: Where is this going down?
A: To prevent just anyone from showing up and to boost the mystique of Hack Club, each Hack Club will be at a different, secret location! Only those 1337 enough to solve a (geeky, of course) puzzle will be granted the whereabouts.
Q: But you guys aren't hackers! In fact, Alexis is one of them start-up business folks...
A: That's true, but we love hackers (and Hackers, the movie) more than anything and we promise we'll stick to ordering pizza and making caffeinated hot cocoa.
Q: Will there be more of these? Will these spread to other cities?
A: If we don't set the whole city on fire, almost certainly! This is a pilot to gauge interest and learn more about what geeks want out of an event like this.
Q: How come the first rule of Hack Club isn't "Don't talk about Hack Club"?
A: Because if no one talked about it, no one would come! People are free to find out about and admire Hack Club all they want, but they still have to be a smart hacker to get in.
Q: Can I work with someone else to solve the puzzle?
A: Of course you can work with a friend or two, but we'd prefer that you not get a whole IRC chat room together. It's not *that* hard!
Q: If I solve the puzzle, can I give the location to my friends?
A: Obviously, we can't stop you from doing this. And we don't mind you inviting other maker friends who would love to play with robots! However, we do ask that you not publish the location on the internets--that would not be very good secret-keeping, would it??
We need you in LA
OneGroupMeddia
really it has to be all night?