Comment Re: It's all good fun. (TCO 2006 Photos) (Score 2, Interesting) 478
I attended the TCO 2006 finals as a spectator, because TopCoder does attract some really great talent and therefore makes for good recruiting and good entertainment. The talent pool does skew toward non-US and early 20s developers, because as you say, people who already have good programming jobs don't have the time or the real need to put in the hours of practice required to compete at these levels.
But TopCoder is still a lot of fun. I gave it a shot - if you just look at it as a fun way to compete in a field in which you have skill, and not as some reflection on your overall talent level - you can have a good time.
Even being a spectator in the finals - being able to watch the top competitors attack some hard problems in real-time - was an exciting experience.
More thoughts on TCO 2006: http://journals.aol.com/juberti/runningman/
Photos from the TCO 2006 finals: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juberti/sets/72057594 129668120/
But TopCoder is still a lot of fun. I gave it a shot - if you just look at it as a fun way to compete in a field in which you have skill, and not as some reflection on your overall talent level - you can have a good time.
Even being a spectator in the finals - being able to watch the top competitors attack some hard problems in real-time - was an exciting experience.
More thoughts on TCO 2006: http://journals.aol.com/juberti/runningman/
Photos from the TCO 2006 finals: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juberti/sets/7205759
