"The real crime is that programmers have so little time for the exploratory work that the career requires that they have to do all of that off-hours." You want to get paid for improving your craft? Your professional development is up to you. If you are passionate about your choice of a profession, then money shouldn't matter. You will do what ever it takes to learn, experiment and grow your skills because it is what you want. At work we do what we have to to get things done. If we are contributing to our personal experience on work time, are we not taking away from the task at hand if the exploration does not further that task? Hopefully, you can someday work for a company that encourages and facilitates personal development woot!. Hackathons are all about getting together and sharing ideas and pushing the envelope. Or should be in any case. The venue, the timing, the subject matter, all contribute or detract from the experience. But most of all it is the mix of people that make the difference, and the experience itself. Some of my best experiences have been late nights in a "skunk-works" project, building something we weren't sure could be built, and sure enough we did it! It didn't feel like work it felt like an adventure! I hope you get to experience something like that in the future. Don't confuse work and making yourself better. Think about changing the Hackathons for the better -- you get out what you put in.