Hack Club
No business cards.
No recruiters.
No spoon.
You are not your job. You are not how much you have in the bank. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your khakis. You are a geek, and you have come to Hack Club seeking freedom.
Like anyone else, geeks want to find like-minded people: collaborators, co-conspirators, competition. And more than anyone else, geeks want to tinker, to experiment and play and explore, to create things that are simply awesome. Hack Club is an event to encourage you to roll up your sleeves and lose track of time with other equally excited people, away from the nuisances of non-geeks trying to hire you or pitch you on their "great social media startup". In other words, it's like getting free meeting pizza without the meeting.
Each round of Hack Club will have a new secret location only disclosed to those who can solve a puzzle. Each event will also have a different theme to allow for different varieties of hackery.
The first and only rule of Hack Club is: Hack or GTFO.
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??
Hack Club Round 1: LEGO Mindstorm Showdown
LEGO provides the Mindstorms, we provide the battlefield and the rules, and you provide the robots that do the special challenge better than every other robot there.
January 14th-15th, 2011
New York City
Doors open at 9 PM
Competition starts at 10 PM on 01/14/11 and ends at 9 AM on 01/15/11
Location:
Solve a puzzle for the location of the event! Once you solve it, please email me (christina@) to check your answer and RSVP so we can get a rough head count!
Special thanks to:
Omni Consumer Products Corporation
Matt Watkins, genius creator of puzzles!