For the past two days, I participated in a Hackathon hosted by Kakao.Corp I walked in with my usual confidence, buoyed by a track record of never failing to win an award in such competitions. However, today was a rude awakening, making me realize that I lack genuine skills.
I was certain that we would take first place. As usual, we developed the business logic, prepared our presentation, and delivered it with confidence. The thought of not winning an award never crossed my mind. But the reality was a crushing defeat. Although we had made it through a 20:1 preliminary round to reach the finals, today made it painfully clear that my skills are woefully inadequate.
the team that took first place had a flawless technical presentation. They implemented a 3D mapping using triangulation and claculated crowd density in real-time to suggest optimal location to find customers. In stark contrast, our product was all flash and no substance. It lacked complex algorithms and a sophisticateed backend which the host takes seriously; it was merely a facade our work.
I felt such an overwheling sense of shame that I almost cried on the way back in my car. I had been deluding myself into thinking that I was doing real business when all I was doing was putting on a show. I need to build genuine skills, and to do that, I must focus. I do not have a specilized field; I've been nothing more than a puppet who's good at talking and presenting. I never want to experience this kind of hummiliation again.
From now on, whenever I find myself lacking humility or feeling overly confident, I will return to this piece to ground myself. In doing so, I aim to move forward, this time armed with genuine skills.
