GoKawiilEngineer recounts hackathon breakdown building 'HoneyCrew' with Lovable AI tool
A software engineer describes a two-day hackathon where a team of engineers and recruiters used the no-code AI platform Lovable to build 'HoneyCrew,' a referral-tracking tool with Slack integration and scraping features. After rapid progress on day one, the project collapsed into bugs and instability on day two, leaving the team scrambling before the final demo.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The anecdote illustrates a recurring tension between non-technical stakeholders and engineers over why software development resists shortcuts, even with AI tools like Lovable that promise fast, no-code builds. It suggests that AI-assisted development can create an illusion of near-completion while masking underlying fragility, or 'infra debt,' that surfaces later—a dynamic the author says is hard to explain to business-minded colleagues who expect linear progress.
- A hackathon team using the AI tool Lovable saw a referral-system project break down on its second day after fast initial progress.
- The author uses the experience to illustrate why non-engineers often underestimate the complexity of software development.
- The piece frames AI coding tools as capable of accelerating early progress while obscuring instability that emerges later.
Source: manager.dev, 2026-09-22
Published there as: “Explaining to business people why building software is still hard”
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