Published on Saturday, May 10, 2025
Let’s be honest for a second. Hackathons are fun. Energy, free pizza, nights with friends curved in laptops—it’s like a summer camp for developers and designers. But here is the uncomfortable truth: most hackathons do not solve real problems.
Now, that might sound a bit harsh, especially if you've ever come out of one feeling like you built something "game-changing." But if we zoom out a little, the pattern becomes pretty clear.
Hackathons started as a way for developers to build quick prototypes—MVPs—over a weekend. Think of it like a sprint, not a marathon. The goal? Show off what’s technically possible.
But real problems are messy. They involve context, stakeholders, and systems that don’t untangle themselves in 48 hours. Trying to fix education, healthcare, or climate change with a weekend app? It’s like trying to cure a disease with a band-aid.
Organizers love to play around with buzzwords like "disruption", "scalability", and "social impact". But let’s look at the numbers:
So why are we pretending these events are engines of enduring innovation?
Most hackathons start with a vague prompt:
“Revolutionize education.”
“Reimagine urban transportation.”
But who’s actually in the room? Developers. Maybe a UX person. Rarely the people who live with these problems every day—teachers, bus drivers, single moms juggling three jobs.
Without domain experts, you’re solving imaginary versions of real problems.
You get apps that help teachers grade homework faster… in schools with no Wi-Fi. Or healthcare solutions designed for hospitals in the U.S., pitched as “global health tools.”
You know the drill: 48 hours. Build fast. Demo hard.
There’s no time for real user research, data validation, or ethical reflection. Most teams skip over questions like:
Instead, they optimize for flash: slick presentations and gimmicks that impress judges.
Think about what wins hackathons:
The prize? Gift cards, resume points, maybe a coffee chat with a VC. The goal isn’t impact—it’s visibility.
If hackathons truly cared about real change, they’d offer post-hackathon incubators, mentorship, or pilot partnerships with NGOs or local governments. But those are rare.
The problems that actually matter—poverty, climate change, misinformation—don’t get solved in 48 hours. They require:
And yes, some of that is very unsexy. It’s documentation. It’s bug fixes. It’s stakeholder meetings. But it’s also how you build something that lasts.
Hackathons aren’t useless—they’re just misused. Here’s what can change:
Hackathons shouldn’t be about winning with a beautiful prototype. They should be about starting something meaningful that could actually make life better for someone, somewhere.
The next time we rally around “building for change,” maybe we should ask fewer questions about how fast something works… and more about whether it’s even the right thing to build.
