the “write good code” economy (and the loop)

• writing code isn’t the hard part
• writing good code is
• but most systems don’t actually reward good code
• they reward more code
• employees get paid to ship features, not to refactor or clean up technical debt
• bounties reward the first PR that “works,” not necessarily the best one
• even open source runs mostly on passion and free labor
• it’s the opposite of simplicity over complexity - we reward the mess, not the elegance

what if good code was the economy itself?

• imagine ecosystem where writing high-quality, reusable code is what makes you money
• where contributions valued not just because they exist
• but because they’re used, trusted, good
• it already kind of exists - people chase github stars for credibility
• but what if stars were money?
• what if every line of well-written, reusable, widely adopted code meant real economic value?
• suddenly writing clean, modular, maintainable code isn’t just an ethic
• it’s an incentive

  good code --> reused code --> better code --> more reuse --> ...

the loop

1. incentivize writing good code - not just code
2. make reusability frictionless - so best code gets leveraged, not rewritten
3. repeat - every generation of developers builds on best code from before, making everything exponentially better

bigger than open source

• this is open source on steroids
• when incentive aligns with quality, we don’t just get more code
• we get better code
• when better code compounds, everything moves faster
• it’s open everything with economic incentives aligned

what i want to build with gno

• system where best engineers aren’t ones who write most code
• but ones who write best code
• where good code isn’t just a philosophy
• it’s the economy itself
• open source proved people love writing great code for free
• now imagine what happens when we make it worth something

good code gets paid, bad code gets replaced

See also

• simple-complex.md
• open-everything.md