NYC Hackathon | Build Stupid + Weird
The Weirdest Hackathon on the Internet
A 48-hour online hackathon for the gloriously, deliberately weird.
Hosted by OnlyWorks × Orbis
Fully online. Free to enter.
Most hackathons want you to pitch a startup.
This one doesn't.
Build the project you'd never put on a résumé — the cursed, the useless, the beautifully pointless thing you've been too embarrassed to ship. Then prove it ran (at least once) and demo it live to a room full of strangers.
The Three Weird Laws
Build the thing you'd never put on a résumé.
Prove it ran — at least once. Demos > slides.
Demo it to a stranger.
Four Flavours of Weird
Useless Engineering
Leaves the world exactly as broken as it found it.
Cursed Technology
The demo where a judge says:
"I hate that this works."
Beautiful Trash
Ugliest input. Heart-stoppingly elegant output.
Demo Theatre
The demo is the project.
How It Works
Thursday, June 18 · 9:00 AM ET
Kickoff livestream + theme reveal. The 48-hour clock begins.
Build for 48 Hours
Fully online
Solo or teams of up to 4
On your own machine
AI assistance allowed
Saturday, June 20 · 12:00 PM ET
Submissions close.
Saturday Evening we will have live-streamed finals.
Finalists will demo their projects to the judges and a livestream full of strangers through an unmarked URL.
Prizes
Grand Prize — "Verified Weird"
$500 cash
Featured showcase
The most embarrassing trophy we could afford
(Winner announced at the end of July.)
Additional Awards
Track prizes
People's Choice Award
Judge-named awards
Certificates and mentorship from the judging panel
Cost to enter: $0
Who It's For
Builders, designers, artists, hackers, and degenerate tinkerers who would rather ship the joke than slide-deck the empire.
AI assistance is welcome.
AI submitting on its own behalf is not.
Open-source what you build.
Register. Join the Discord. Bring Something Weird.
Questions: [email protected]
OnlyWorks are bringing together a community of builders who care more about making strange things real than making them marketable.
OnlyWorks is proof of real work, not résumés.
For one weekend, we're celebrating projects that should never have existed but somehow do.