Do not put any personal or professional stake or pride in something with that stupid of a name

31

as someone who has loads of friends who win a lot of hackathons (talking like big ones like HackMIT, HackHarvard), and never won one myself, it’s never really about the skill of your programming, and rather just having a good idea that solves a legitimate problem (and usually thought about before hand). also, these same people ik who have won these big ones have had equally as many fails.

9

The key to having good ideas for hackathons is to define your intended userbase and consider their “pain points.” If your app/service/solution isn’t resolving a pain point for someone, it doesn’t really have a lot of relevance.

4

Honestly, just drill the basics, then start doing lots of them. There’s a bunch of games out that will drill you on the basics, then it’s all about flexing the muscle till you build up strength!

1

Don’t beat yourself up!! Showing up, participating, and actively trying to improve is very impressive

1

I’ve only been to 1 hackathon but it was clear all the winners had been working on their projects for a while before the event.

1

Just get gud

-6