New Year Hackathon | AI is Making People Dumber...

It's a new year, and I think it's time for another hackathon! This one will likely put off some people who love to slurp up that AI slop, but for those who think for themselves and care about deep skill level - this one's for you.

Hackathon details and instructions to sign up: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxAToLEywM5Dw5HtUJhno3pik6DV4JJSfZ

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Transcript

Don Hansen: 0:00

Happy New Year. 2025 has been interesting. To me, in the content creator space, it felt like I was just seeing a bunch of content creators deep throat AI so deep down their throats that they are going to be shitting out AI slop for all of 2026. I am tired of the AI slop. I am tired of the false promises with AI, how it's going to replace everyone in tech. I am tired of companies continuing to bail each other out in the AI industry. I am tired of companies pretending like AI investments aren't drying up. I am tired of pretending like AI is a net positive in the world. We were promised many things with AI. We were not promised all of this AI slop and the shit that has been thrown onto society as a result of AI companies just trying to make as much money as possible. That's how I feel. I don't know if you can relate, but in 2026, I feel very good about people that are trying to break into tech who truly care about tech. They're interested in it, they're curious, they get excited about it, and they dive deep and they build that deep knowledge and that skill level. Those people will stand out. Those are the people that I'm seeing who aren't dependent on AI, but actually dependent on themselves and build confidence through struggle and feeling stupid and not quickly jumping to AI solving the problem, if it even does, because we all know AI is just a slot machine. You are just gambling. You can't produce the same or you can't put in the same input and expect the same output. That's not how these LLMs work. You're just gambling. And people who are actually taking the time to do proper research and really explore these concepts and learn about them in different ways, where different content creators are who actually know what they're doing. Developers who know what they're doing explain these concepts in an accurate way. When you are seeking out that kind of information on the internet and you are spending significant time struggling through the problems rather than just skipping to a solution, um, these are the types of people who I think are going to do really well in tech. There is going to be a differential between people who have a deep skill level and people who have been dependent on AI for too long, especially as a junior, let's say a junior developer. Why? Why in the world would you not want to get better? I it just blows my mind how many junior developers are leaning so hard on AI, thinking that's what makes them unique. That's what makes them stand out. And they are going to be better from the rest, and they are going to just how could employers not hire them because they are using AI. They're at the top of the industry, and they are keeping up to date with all the AI technologies. Employers must desire them so much. I cannot wait until this AI bubble pops. We will see who actually belongs in tech and who doesn't. Now that I got that off my chest, I am going to be hosting a hackathon. And one of the most important rules of this hackathon is you are not allowed to use agentic coding. No generated AI code whatsoever. I know. Crazy idea. You're going to have to code on your own. I I know. I know. In 2026, I'm just I'm practically just a boomer at this point that just doesn't understand technology, I'm sure. But for those who think that maybe I'm onto something, that maybe that deep skill level is worth something in tech, um, you are invited to my hackathon. It's very junior friendly. Um, it's probably going to be about 28 days uh long. And I'm going to be offering three rewards for completing it to three random people, not everyone. Um, three-month subscription to Scrimba, three months to boot.dev. So I recommend Scrimba for aspiring front end developers, boot.dev for aspiring backend developers. I think they're the strongest programs out there right now for self-taught developers. And then for the third one, uh one-on-one with me. So just kind of like a career talk, career advice. And I'll provide more details in links below, but I would love to have you. So we're gonna get this new year started with people who want to think for themselves again. And if you have become someone who has become dependent on AI, use this hackathon as a reset to pull you back and get you to struggle again and critically think for yourself again. Please, please. I want people to start thinking for themselves. I think a lot of people are going to become much dumber from this overdependence. I am genuinely scared for the intelligence of our society with this overdependence, and I highly encourage people to pay attention to the studies of atrophy, of skills, and cognitive ability, um, problem solving, critical thinking that is coming out for people who have been depending on ChatGPT and other LLMs way too often. I don't know about you, but that scares the shit out of me. I value my intelligence, I value my ability to think, and I think more people should do the same. So that's all I have. I am actually looking forward to 2026, and I am mainly going to focus on helping people who care to build that deep skill level, not people who are using AI to do the work for them so that they will be the most unmarketable and replaceable people in tech. No, I want to help people who actually still value that long journey of getting really good at solving problems in tech. I know, another crazy idea. Maybe you should be interested in actually solving problems in tech if you want to break into tech. But we will talk more about that in 2026. So, anyways, I hope to see you at the hackathon. Details on how to sign up will be below.