The general public, including most hackathon organizers and corporate types, have no clue about how long it takes to make software. No one has a build a car in

The general public, including most hackathon organizers and corporate types, have no clue about how long it takes to make software. No one has a build a car in a weekend contest. Even if someone could build a car in a weekend, they find the parts, find suppliers, and plan the design out long before the weekend and have a dozen people on standby to do the work. What you end up with a hackathon is the equivalent of a soap box racer. It looks feasible because it can take you from the top of the hill to the bottom of the hill. But it's not a car. The entire concept of productivity out of a hackathon is born out of a perpetual misunderstanding and lack of knowledge about software development because the people that organize them usually have always A) found someone else to solve their problems. They have no concept of how long a problem should take to solve. and B) payed money to resolve their problem immediately. Again, they have no basis for how long a problem should take to solve. If someone suggests a hackathon and expects actual results, which lots of people do, those people have not come to terms with the idea that engineering is where the "find someone else to solve it" chain comes to an end.