I've never been a fan of "hackathons" for long term projects going back a number of years. That said, the group I am part of, we regularly engage in focused "h

I've never been a fan of "hackathons" for long term projects going back a number of years. That said, the group I am part of, we regularly engage in focused "hackfests", where there is a clear goal, people work together, and a lot gets done in 3-5 days. Is it always complete, no, but for solving spot problems, short term deep dives can be great. Generalizing that, as hacktahons try to, there will be some interesting successes, but that won't be the norm.