This is a submission for the World's Largest Hackathon Writing Challenge: Beyond the Code.
The Bolt Hackathon wasn't just a coding sprint - it was a full-blown creative marathon, and I had the privilege of running it with a dream team.
We teamed up to tackle the chaotic world of online discourse - Reddit in particular. Our goal? To cut through the noise and build a clean, simple app that gives users instant insight into the sentiment behind Reddit discussions. We wanted to help people see the mood of a subreddit or thread at a glance using keywords!, and ofcourse AI.
And we delivered. ✨
The Human Side of Building
What made this journey unforgettable wasn't just the tech stack or the deadline adrenaline - it was the people.
Despite juggling classes and jobs, we had one thing in common: a crazy level of commitment. We weren't just trying to finish. We were trying to make something that actually worked and looked good doing it.
From bouncing ideas in voice calls to debugging together late into the night, the collaboration felt more like a startup team than a weekend hackathon. Everyone brought their own strengths - from UI design to API wrangling to making sure the summary logic didn’t accidentally insult anyone on Reddit 😅.
Shout-outs and Gratitude
- To my teammates: You know who you are - absolute legends. I couldn’t have asked for a better squad.
- To the Bolt community: The Discord was electric. The support, memes, quick feedback loops, and even random feature drops kept us energized and connected.
- To the Dev.to challenge crew: Thanks for encouraging us to share the story behind the code. These stories matter.
What I’ll Take With Me
This hackathon reminded me that tech is nothing without people. You can have the cleanest code in the world, but if you can’t communicate, collaborate, or believe in your idea together - it's just code.
Building a product with heart, speed, and teamwork? That’s the real win.
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