enginomics
Original: enginomics on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
A man (an advisor) to a mayor: "Mr. Mayor, are you really going to change the name of our town to 'Blockchain City?'"
Mayor: "But why?"
Panel 2:
Mayor: "Oh yes. And that's only the beginning."
Panel 3:
Mayor (narrating): "The best way to improve the municipal economy is to attract a large number of engineers."
Panel 4:
Mayor (narrating): "Engineers generate value by making teeny tiny improvements in things like car parts, search results, and banking software."
Panel 5:
Mayor (narrating): "However, they THINK they generate value by reinventing the universe with decentralized blockchain or things of whatever."
Panel 6:
Mayor (narrating): "Although you only WANT them for the actual value-creation work, in order to attract and retain them, you have to make the stuff they THINK matters."
Panel 7:
Mayor (narrating): "So, you get up a cafe with bad coffee that accepts bitcoin, but then immediately convert it to actual money, and a hackerspace with a bunch of 3D printers that are only good for impressing children, and a station for personal transport quadcopters that will never be built."
Panel 8:
Mayor (narrating): "All this costs almost nothing. But the engineers will come! Come in their thousands! Like lemmings with opinions about Python!"
Panel 9:
Mayor (narrating): "The entire municipal economic policy is to pay for pointless construction projects to sucker confused engineers into work they don't value."
Panel 10:
Advisor: "We are also hoping to sucker confused finance people, but yes."
Votey:
A woman speaking (from off-panel, in a large speech bubble): "Are you in there alienating your target audience?!"
Below, a man sits slumped in an armchair, looking dejected and not responding.
A man (an advisor) to a mayor: "Mr. Mayor, are you really going to change the name of our town to 'Blockchain City?'"
Mayor: "But why?"
Panel 2:
Mayor: "Oh yes. And that's only the beginning."
Panel 3:
Mayor (narrating): "The best way to improve the municipal economy is to attract a large number of engineers."
Panel 4:
Mayor (narrating): "Engineers generate value by making teeny tiny improvements in things like car parts, search results, and banking software."
Panel 5:
Mayor (narrating): "However, they THINK they generate value by reinventing the universe with decentralized blockchain or things of whatever."
Panel 6:
Mayor (narrating): "Although you only WANT them for the actual value-creation work, in order to attract and retain them, you have to make the stuff they THINK matters."
Panel 7:
Mayor (narrating): "So, you get up a cafe with bad coffee that accepts bitcoin, but then immediately convert it to actual money, and a hackerspace with a bunch of 3D printers that are only good for impressing children, and a station for personal transport quadcopters that will never be built."
Panel 8:
Mayor (narrating): "All this costs almost nothing. But the engineers will come! Come in their thousands! Like lemmings with opinions about Python!"
Panel 9:
Mayor (narrating): "The entire municipal economic policy is to pay for pointless construction projects to sucker confused engineers into work they don't value."
Panel 10:
Advisor: "We are also hoping to sucker confused finance people, but yes."
Votey:
A woman speaking (from off-panel, in a large speech bubble): "Are you in there alienating your target audience?!"
Below, a man sits slumped in an armchair, looking dejected and not responding.
Alt text
A ten-panel SMBC comic. An advisor asks the mayor why he wants to rename their town 'Blockchain City.' The mayor explains his economic plan: the best way to improve a municipal economy is to attract lots of engineers, who actually generate value through tiny incremental improvements to things like car parts, search results, and banking software, but who THINK they create value by reinventing everything with decentralized blockchain. Since you only want them for the real work, you have to build the stuff they think matters in order to attract them: a cafe with bad coffee that accepts bitcoin (immediately converted to real money), a hackerspace with 3D printers good only for impressing children, and a station for personal transport quadcopters that will never be built. He says it all costs almost nothing but the engineers will come 'in their thousands, like lemmings with opinions about Python.' The whole policy is to fund pointless construction projects to sucker confused engineers into work they don't value. The advisor replies that they also hope to sucker confused finance people, but yes. Votey: a woman's voice in a large speech bubble asks 'Are you in there alienating your target audience?!' while a man slumps dejectedly in an armchair, silent.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.