this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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Pointless coding for the void (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 days ago by reabsorbthelight@lemmy.world to c/cs_career_questions@programming.dev
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I feel like most of my work has been wasted throughout my career.

In my 10 years, I can look back and I think maybe 3 years of my work still exists today. A couple companies are not defunct. A couple projects were literally cut from under me.

Is this normal? Do most software engineers end up having a ton of their work wasted?

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[โ€“] ulterno@programming.dev 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Yes

A lot of my work has been making programs to help prove custom communication protocols, before they are used.

So I am making:

  1. A simulator for some device that sends data, like a sensor of some physical phenomenon.
  • The data would either be decided by the user or from logs of a real device. It could be some GUI that lets the user vary values on the fly
  1. A receiver of said data in the given protocol. This would then decode and display the data, which can then be tallied with original input data.

These were essentially only made to show that the protocol works and then used to test actual equipment which would be fabricated by some other company and as per the contract, the devices would need to be able to work with the simulators.

So once the actual devices are ready and deployed, little programs have done their job and are no longer required.
They do end up being shown to future junior devs though, as examples to learn from.

[โ€“] reabsorbthelight@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

One of my most proud achievements was getting some HPC software to run on this new processor my startup company built. It could have been great.

Then they hired some consultants who came in, got massive golden parachutes and methodically bankrupted the company. It was pretty obvious their intent when they cancelled contracts with our primary investor.

I've basically been extremely skeptical and jaded ever since