Fun Run Champs Application: Fill & Download for Free

I wrote about my first hackathon awhile back, some insights on it:tl;dr - Bring extra clothes and toiletries, have a team organizer, pick a familiar tech stack or stitch together technologies everyone is comfortable with (unless you are going to learn something new), practice for and nail the presentation.General- Bring some toiletries. I loved being able to change out of my contacts and brushing my teeth.- A change of clothes will feel good. I didn’t do this, which was foolish. I stayed in my one wardrobe of Brewers cap, North Face fleece, jeans. A clean set of clothes in the AM would have felt like magic. Instead, I felt a bit like a vagrant by the end of the competition. Luckily, I’m generally evaluated on computer things. Still, I would have felt better in new clothes. Fact.- Keep your caffeine constant. I bought a 4-pack of red bull before going, but left it sitting in my kitchen. I’m so glad that I did. Keeping a rather slight rate of caffeine through the evening worked better than ups and downs of caffeine. Even though I felt beat between 3 AM – 5 AM (which, as you’ll read later, was in the middle of my wrestling with the database), I felt alert again at crunch time. I feel like if I would have been over-caffeinated at 10, that I would have just passed out for 6 hours.- Call someone not at the hackathon at midnight. Remind yourself of what the real world is like. Laugh a bit. Code some more.- Have someone ready to organize the group. I feel like I went in a parabola of interaction with the group. At the beginning, I was pitching ideas. Then I was coding. Then I was zoned in coding. Then I was interacting on fitting some pieces together. Then I was prepping for our presentation. Then I was presenting. I know that I can get pretty anti-social when I’m programming sometimes. If that’s you, make sure you partner up with someone that makes sure that everyone is working together to reduce redundancy and keep focus. (My co-founder) Dan’s super good at this, FYI.Programming- I prepared for things by brushing up on my rails, java and PHP. And, I would have probably had alot of fun doing everything in those languages. But, when it all came to shove, I went back to working what I was super familiar with in .NET. I think you can piece together all types of different pieces of code from different languages at a hackathon. So long as it works… BUT…- Make sure you know that your database will work with anything! I started writing our texting scripting in PHP instead of C# which I’m familiar with. So, when I built the database to hold texts, MySQL seemed like an OK idea at the . Didn’t work well with loading some things for Java. Didn’t work well with ASP or with hosting on Azure when I tried to load the application to production. If you’re going to spend anytime prepping before a hackathon, make sure you know that your database will work on multiple languages and platforms easily. I could have probably built out 3 other features that I wanted if I hadn’t been spending time trying to make the database I had already committed to work. Bad idea.- Walk around every once in awhile. It’s just code… man…- Keep an eye on the prize. Don’t forget while you design your cooler super feature that you need basic things like forms and landing pages. Loop back around to those things.Snacks- Are for champs. You can run tomorrow. Stay fueled up today.Presentation- I’ve given a lot of demos to doctors. I still do. Doctors are generally by nature a pretty smart and serious bunch. They’re generally grossly overworked. In this situation, jokes are always effective. Sames goes for a sleep-deprived hack crowd. You might have just created a way to better diagnose asthma. Awesome. You know what I haven’t done in 30 hours? Sleep or shower. I have no focus. To do a good presentation, you should try to win your audience, not just the judges. Your audience is tired and huddled around you huddled around your presentation computer. Win it by bringing some appropriate humor and levity to your presentation. Other tips:DO:- Joke about how tired you are or any computer problems- Do start off with a quick joke before you present. Trust me, you’ve got 15 seconds for it.- Do try and show off anything cute that you’ve done. Our logo was as much of a winner as our application.- Build something interactive. That our application did a live demo of texting was seemingly a crowd pleaser. Everyone loves toys.DON’T:- Assume that everyone knows about the problem that you just fixed. Especially after not really sleeping for a day.- Play just to your team or to the judges. Trust me, you’ll need to win the audience.- Don’t be just about the facts. Facts are cool. Fun facts are cooler.- Show only a powerpoint. Even if you need to mock up screenshots from a web browser using photoshop, do that.Just some thoughts. Keep on hacking.

Yes, that is true. I currently have 41k miles on the car. Here are the maintenance items that I have paid for on the car:Windshield washer fluid.Tires (at 40k miles). "Launches" in a P85 can be demanding on tires.Wheel alignment.Fun fact: because of regenerative braking, even the brake pads will likely last the life of the car.A Model S has fewer than 20 moving parts, excluding things like windows and climate control. An average family sedan has over 10,000 moving parts in just the drivetrain alone. The drive train of a Model S is just slightly more complicated than a blender. Just about all of the cost premium is in the batteries and the lightweight aluminum body.The motor is innovative (it is liquid cooled), but it's essentially the same thing that Nikola Tesla invented a century ago. If we had put 1/1000 of the resources we've spent over the past hundred years on battery electric vehicles as we have on hydrocarbon powered internal combustion engine cars, we'd all be driving electric cars today.EDIT: there is some controversy in my claim about 20 moving parts in the entire car. I will retract that and say that a more accurate comparison is between the drive trains in a BEV vs an ICEV. This discussion hashed out a lot of the particulars: http://my.teslamotors.com/it_IT/forum/forums/model-s-vs-ice-how-many-moving-parts.The fact is that the complexity of the electric drive train is at least two orders of magnitude less than an internal combustion engine drive train.EDIT 2:I originally ended with: "Hopefully that will satisfy the pedants."The person to whom that was directed has deleted his response and my rebuttals, so it is no longer applicable. To those who politely pointed out my error without spewing a bunch of other inaccurate balderdash, thank you.EDIT 3:I now have over 72,000 miles on the car. I just got back from driving it from Florida to Reno and back for the grand opening of the Gigafactory. It was a very pleasant trip, no different from driving in an ICE except “fuel” was free and the accelleration was effortless.Since I wrote this post, I did have a warranty item on my Model S drive train. While the 50,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty has run out, the 8 year UNLIMITED mile drive train and battery warranty is still in effect until 2021.On the way back from a trip to Washington DC, I received the equivalent of a “check engine” light: “Accelleration has been limited, please call Tesla Support”. Which I did. It turns out there was a malfunctioning switch in the battery pack. While the car would drive just fine, accelleration was indeed limited.The remedy was interesting and very different from how it is handled in ICE cars. Since the battery pack is by far the most expensive item in the car, and does experience some natural degradation over time, Tesla sent the entire 1,000 lb battery pack back to Fremont for repair. While the battery was being repaired, I was given a “loaner” battery pack, which I used for daily driving and for another trip to DC. It took three months to repair the battery pack by replacing the faulty relays, but who cares? I had my Tesla and ran it just fine (actually slightly better since the loaner battery pack was newer than my pack) for the time I needed it.My point is that EVs have very different drive trains than ICEVs, and sometimes how they are repaired is very different. This may come to the dismay of “gearheads”, but electric drive trains spell the end of tinkering in the garage the same way that transistors mostly did away with the TV repairman.EDIT 4:I’m up to 131,000 on my 5.5 year old OG Model S P85. Still running like a champ. My drivetrain and battery warranty is still in effect, but I haven’t had to use it.I have had a few repair items since the last edit.I lost blinkers, wipers, tail lights and some other features controlled by the “body control module” (BCM).I had water incursion into my tail lights, requiring a complete replacement of the unit. I believe it is this incursion they caused the problem with the BCM by shorting out the lights.I had a broken subframe assembly. I don’t know how it happened - probably a bad pothole.Driver and passenger door handles broke and had to be replaced.My last set of tires only lasted about 30,000 miles.I have a de-lamination if the adhesive in the MCU (17” screen). A trip to Vegas got it started because of the heat. It is slowly dripping into the console tray. At the current rate, it will likely be gone by next year.My Bluetooth and Wi-fi radios are both flakey. I don’t really use them any more. They will pair with my phone, but drop out and reset randomly after 20–60 minutes.The remedies for all of these cost no more than comparable repairs on BMW or Audi.The BCM required a simple reset. Tesla Service recommended replacing it at $1200, but I told them no. It is holding up fine after 6 months after a simple reset.The tail light replacement was $800. That one is a common problem, and really should have been done under warranty 3 years ago. If moisture incursion is happening to you, insist on a replacement, even if it doesn’t look that bad.The subframe assembly was a whopper: $1800. The tech showed me the original, and it was a broken integrated bracket that was holding the axel in place.For an adventure, I bought a driver side door handle off E-bay for $120 and replaced it myself. It took me 8 hours for something that takes Tesla about 30 minutes. Which I had them do for $350 on the passenger side.Not sure why the latest tires wore out so fast. Wear was pretty even, so I don’t think it was alignment. Also, I actually drive more conservatively nowadays,and only do a few “launches” a year.The MCU is famously expensive, so I’m putting that off for a while. It still works, but it has a weird horseshoe shaped meniscus that is at about 1/4 of the screen now.I don’t use Bluetooth or WiFi much any more.The interior is holding up pretty well. I wash and vacuum it once a week.The paint still looks good even though I don’t fetishize the exterior finish. For example, washes are through an automated car wash. While there are a few micro-scratches and tiny gravel chips, only the most fastidious observer would think it’s a 5 year old paint job.I have lost about 20 miles of “rated range at 90% charge”. When it was new, I could charge to 235 miles@90%. Now, I get 215 miles@90%. It would be interesting to compare that with the loss of efficiency of an ICE over a similar time period. Loss of range seems to be decelerating. I’ve only lost 2 miles range over the past year.

“We need you to lead our intern program this summer.”“Do we have an intern program?”“Nope, but you’ll come up with something.”My first opportunity as a manager was hiring several interns and developing a program to teach them to sell. I was 24 years old and this was my first time interviewing and selecting talent.I visited two major universities after posting a job description and pre-selecting candidates for interview panels. With no prior experience in hiring and only a few open positions, I set about limiting applications to those I would meet in person. My company was Fortune 10 and put a heavy emphasis on GPA. Our brand name was strong and we felt like we could recruit the best of the best.I knew this because of how much grief I took for my weak 2.95 overall GPA when I interviewed three years prior. Every interviewer dug into why my grades weren’t higher, so much that I was surprised when they actually made me an offer.After two days of interviews, I only filled 3 of the 4 slots. Most of the candidates I met with were rigid and limited in extracurricular activities. With this group, the higher the GPA, the harder it was to keep the conversation going. I came across plenty of intelligent people but struggled to see them interacting with customers.After the last day of panel interviews, we had an information session open to all students. We bought some pizzas and managers were available to talk about the company to anyone interested in attending.A young man approached me at this session. He hadn’t been selected for an interview but was very interested in our company. He gave me his resume and I realized quickly why I hadn’t met him. He had a 3.0 GPA in Management and we were looking for 3.5 or higher with an Engineering degree.Yes, it seems ridiculous looking back that we wanted a 3.5 for a sales internship. To understand, picture Google advertising for a sales and marketing internship today. They will receive thousands of resumes and can pick the very best. Kids will apply because Google on your resume nearly guarantees that you land a full time position out of college.I worked for GE twenty years ago, at a time when GE made magazine covers for Most Admired Company and our CEO, Jack Welch, had just been named CEO of the Century by Fortune. In other words, it was easy to find high GPA candidates who wanted GE on their resume and they didn’t care what the assignment was.Back to this young man, I tried to let him down nicely and told him the requirements for the position and he handled it like a champ. He smiled, said he understood and then asked politely if he could ask me a few questions. Sure, I thought. The pizza is paid for and my flight isn’t until tomorrow.“This is a sales internship, correct?”“Yes, it is.”“What will you expect of an intern?”“Well, you would be prospecting from a list of potential targets. You role is to set up appointments for our seasoned sales reps by cold calling.”“Got it. Do the other candidates you’ve selected have experience cold calling?”“Uh, not that I can recall. No.”“Can I tell you about my background?”He went on to tell me about his first job which was selling door to door. He told me about how humbling the experience was at first and how he hit 200 houses every day, rain or shine. He walked me through the importance of a good opening, how to lead with a smile and a question, how he overcome objections and the importance of mindset when you’re having a bad day.He further explained how he did this job while putting himself through college. In fact, he had several jobs while taking classes which made it challenging to spend as much time studying as some other kids.He then told me about his fraternity and the roles he held, including two semesters as President. He explained how his fraternity had built his social skills and what he learned about leadership from running a house filled with 50 guys.Oh, by the way, he was a collegiate athlete which was also a significant time constraint.“OK, you win. Want a job?”He accepted and all four started on the same day. Three of the four had an average of 3.8 GPA and our door to door salesman brought the average down a few points.You can probably guess who came out on top.From day one, my boy with the average GPA ran circles around the more accomplished students. Yes, he had specific experience that gave him a head start but he had something much more important. Mindset.When a customer said no to him, he moved on. He didn’t let rejection define him as he was accustomed to failures. He looked at these small failures as opportunities to learn and tweak his pitch with the next phone call.His peers saw it much differently. They were so accustomed to winning that the daily parade of rejection was debilitating. They took every rejection personally and it was apparent in the volume of calls they made. On a daily basis, our fraternity President was making twice the number of outbound calls.The others were so paralyzed by potential rejection that they took way too much time preparing for their phone calls and then second guessing themselves after every call. Rather than playing the numbers game and grinding, they deliberately slowed the process so as not hear “no” as often in a day. In psychological terms, this is called self-handicapping and is a coping mechanism to avoid damage to self esteem.Of the four interns, we only made one permanent offer and he had the lowest GPA in the group.Does this mean I never hired a candidate with a high GPA? Absolutely not. One of the best hires I ever made was to an honors student from Georgia Tech just a few B’s away from a 4.0. He also held high level roles in several organizations and played competitive basketball. But, even this young man struggled out of the gate, especially with failure and not having a definitive path to achieving results.I’ve seen many hires with a strong GPA struggle with the many indirect paths to success in a career. They are used to following instructions, completing their assignments, putting in the work and getting a perfect grade. In business, there is no one prescribed way of getting results.College professors are interested in the path you take to a result as well as the result. In business, there is only the result. Most managers are indifferent on your path. Some kids with perfect grades struggle when you won’t give them a prescribed plan to achieve that result. They chafe at the lack of direction, which is a hallmark in business. No one is going to hold your hand.I like hiring people who have failed a little in their life and are not paralyzed by it. I especially like people who are not afraid to admit a) That they failed, b)Why they failed and c) What they learned from it.If your grades aren’t the greatest, own it. Explain why it happened. Did you have a miserable semester where you didn’t apply yourself? Own it. Then tell me how that humbling experience forced you into better habits and what you learned that will make you a better asset to my company.The last thing I will say about grades is that two years after graduation, no one will give a damn. You probably won’t ever get asked about your GPA once you’ve had some real life experience and opportunity to prove what you can do for a business. Businesses are much more interested in your ability to generate tangible results than grades on an exam.Once you start your first job, no one will care about your GPA. You will be measured against every other person in your role, whether they went to college or not. You will be measured on results. If you had a high GPA, brace yourself for failure. Actually, embrace failure. Welcome failure as an opportunity to learn. Boast about your failures, make fun of yourself a little. This will drive you to try harder and skip the self-handicapping behavior holding you back.Get that first job, kick butt and you’ll be done talking about grades for the rest of your career. Unless, you decide to write an answer on Quora like me.Good luck out there.