> It seems to me that a lot of would-be conservative, career-driven tech workers are discovering that they can make more money flipping jpegs and meme coins than writing code for a big company.

To me it feels like selling snake oil. Things like NFTs do not seem to have any real value except to those who believe it has real value.

I do like your take on it that these engineers are exploring new outlets of engineering and that could have some positive externalities kind of like how car enthusiasts in the 50s' were able to build out incredible racing cars and racing series that improved engines quite dramatically