Hackathon, With Balloons

Me at my desk during an internal hackathon in 2021 — back to the camera, still working, a bunch of blue balloons tied to my chair.

The balloons weren't decoration. Each one represented a point scored: challenges spanning algorithms, cryptography, security, and capture-the-flag style attack-and-defence rounds. The more you solved, the more balloons your team collected. By the end, we had enough to make the office look like a birthday party.

I remember being more focused on the next problem than on the score — which is probably why the photo looks the way it does.