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The Grand Game of Software Engineering

Stories, often even humor, from the dark side of corporate culture.

Am I The Only Person Actually Working?

6 min readSep 12, 2025

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On wasting time, and the art of pretending it isn’t wasted.

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“Image generated using OpenAI’s DALL·E.”

Look, I do know I complain a lot about process (primarily agile), even more about Human Resources (a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, really, to be fair), and definitely a whole lot more about management and their seeming mission to suffocate software engineering as a profession.

Complaining about management is mandatory in many professions, so that in itself isn’t unusual. I believe the primary reason for the dysfunction in so many things is due to unqualified and inexperienced “management” being put in charge of things — but let’s not digress, this is only the second paragraph.

But, you know something? They do all have something fundamental in common. There is a single common thread running through all of those nefarious practices and organisations that binds them together as the absolute scourge of productivity, efficiency, and what HR like to call wellbeing (but I prefer to call happiness).

They waste my time. They waste your time. They waste everyone’s time.

Now, ordinarily I wouldn’t mind this but my own personal sanity depends upon not being bored out of my mind, not sitting around wasting my life when I could be doing something actually useful, and definitely not sitting around waiting for something, or…

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The Grand Game of Software Engineering
The Grand Game of Software Engineering

Published in The Grand Game of Software Engineering

Stories, often even humor, from the dark side of corporate culture.

Dr Stuart Woolley
Dr Stuart Woolley

Written by Dr Stuart Woolley

Worries about the future. Way too involved with software. Likes coffee, maths, and . Would prefer to be in academia. SpaceX, X, and Overwatch fan.

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