Why Hackathons?

I agree. Properly organized hackathons (that aren't merely a front for recruiting people) are great fun if you like the vibe of working around other people with a major time constraint. It forces you to come up with some clever ideas.

That said, I tend to work on my own or in a pair at these events. It's great being around people but ensuring you get reasonable consensus in a larger team is hard work and ideally demands you know your team in advance.

P.S. I think tickets might all be gone now, but http://leedshack.com/ is next weekend. British readers might want to keep it on their radar for future reference as the last one was awesome.

I think this is a pretty good summary of what Hackathons are all about. Sometimes they are crappy and draining, but when they work out, they are absolutely awesome. Those awesome times more than make up for the bad ones (If you get the chance to have one).