Edit wiki/figure-out-what-you-want-before-partners.md — Rookie Mistakes & Gotchas

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# figure out what you want before looking for partners

## what happened

lesson from finding partner in hackathon is that you gotta figure out what you want earlier and optimize for that. showed up looking for teammates without knowing what i actually wanted from the experience.

## why it's a gotcha

if you don't know whether you want to win, learn, network, or ship, you'll end up on a team optimized for a different goal. the person who wants to win will clash with the person who wants to learn. both are valid — but they don't mix well under time pressure. the downstream effect is [[teams-without-shared-understanding|a team without shared understanding]], and under pressure, the [[personality-mismatch-under-pressure|personality clashes]] get ugly fast.

## the fix

before the hackathon, ask yourself: am i here to win, learn something specific, meet people, or build something real? then find people aligned with that goal. [[unclear-roles|roles should follow from goals]] — and so should your choice of theme or track. make sure you [[match-the-theme-track|know what game you're playing]]. if you can't find aligned people, [[solo-vs-bad-team|going solo]] is better than joining the wrong team out of [[fomo-trap|FOMO]].