Reverse Brainstorm

Inspiration Creativity blocks are real. When facing a problem, our brains tend to reach for the most obvious, boring solutions. What if we could force ourselves to think sideways? I wanted to build a tool that rewards absurdity – turning everyday annoyances into viral, unexpected ideas. With MeDo’s multi‑AI capabilities (LLM + image generation), I could create a “creativity grenade” that anyone can pull the pin on.

What it does Reverse Brainstorm helps creators, writers, and procrastinators break out of ruts:

Problem input – type any boring problem (e.g., “I always lose my keys”).

3 weird solutions – AI generates unexpected, funny, borderline‑genius answers.

Upvoting – community votes for the best/wildest solutions.

Image remix – click “Remix” to turn any solution into a whimsical AI‑generated illustration.

Public gallery – most upvoted ideas from all users, with a leaderboard for trending & all‑time top.

How we built it One master prompt in MeDo describing React + Tailwind + Supabase + LLM plugin (Claude) + image generation plugin (DALL‑E/Flux).

Iterated 3 times:

Added loading spinners for both LLM and image generation calls.

Implemented collapsible mobile menu (hamburger → bottom drawer).

Built a 3‑step tour for first‑time users (problem input → generate → remix/upvote).

Used Supabase for ideas and votes tables – anonymous voting with session_id (localStorage).

Integrated LLM plugin with a prompt that forces JSON output of 3 solutions.

Image generation plugin called on “Remix” – stored URL in Supabase.

Deployed with one click to public URL.

Challenges we ran into LLM output consistency – sometimes it returned markdown or extra text. Fixed by adding a system instruction: “Return ONLY a JSON array of 3 strings, no other text.”

Image generation cost/speed – each remix takes 3–5 seconds; added a caching layer so the same solution + remix doesn’t regenerate.

Anonymous voting spam – used localStorage session_id + Supabase unique constraint (idea_id, session_id) to prevent double voting from same browser.

Rate limiting – to avoid abuse, we added a simple frontend cooldown (5 submissions per hour tracked via localStorage + timestamp).

Accomplishments that we're proud of A truly unique app – no other hackathon project combines LLM idea generation + AI image remixing for brainstorming.

Viral potential: the gallery becomes funnier as more people add problems.

Fully functional with zero login required – anyone can play immediately.

Built entirely through natural language prompts – the hardest part was describing the “vibe” (weird, playful, chaotic).

What we learned MeDo handles multiple AI plugins seamlessly – you can chain LLM output into an image generator with a single chat instruction.

Anonymous voting is easy with Supabase + session_id – no need to force user accounts.

The “Surprise Us” category rewards unexpected combinations – combining text + image AI in a creative loop stood out.

Prompt engineering for creativity: asking for “absurd but slightly useful” solutions yields better results than “give me innovative ideas.”

What's next for Reverse Brainstorm Social sharing – one‑click tweet of your favorite weird solution with the generated image.

Custom image styles – user selects “cartoon”, “cyberpunk”, “watercolor” before remixing.

Problem categories – filter gallery by problem type (home, work, relationships, tech).

Weekly contest – highest‑upvoted idea each week wins a prize (or bragging rights).

Mobile app – wrap as PWA for native feel.

Export as meme pack – download all your remixed images as a zip.

Built With

• ai
• medo