Editor's Note: The Next Revolution In this issue, we celebrate our Young Millionaires. These are the faces and the inspiration of tomorrow.
By Amy Cosper
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Among the many unusual things one learns at a Croatian hackathon: 1. Coders are understood, globally, to be total badasses who thrive on sleep deprivation, and 2. post-hackathon, coders look like high holy hell, espresso-swilling, red-eyed vampires.
There are other, more useful things one learns at a hackathon in Croatia as well. The first of which is that hackathons are anchored on the very principles and idealism of entrepreneurship and are steeped in the traditions of a startup economy. Even if that economy has no idea what is happening. It's all about "creating something where nothing was."
The global appeal of entrepreneurship is newer than you might think. In America, its story arc is well-understood and accepted. Entrepreneurship is the ultimate freedom, a movement that is so deeply ingrained that we sometimes forget how lucky we are. It's what we do (Yankee ingenuity), and it's what we (generally) fight for. It is as much a part of our heritage as cowboys and horses. But it's not everyone's cultural heritage.
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