Welcome to the void
Satirical tech short stories from the void
I’ve worked as a software engineer for more than a decade, and I’ve seen too much.
There is absurdity everywhere. It’s like the air we breathe, surrounding us, like the force. Always available. Watching. Knowing. It’s an industry-wide theatre where workers applaud uproariously as leaders speak at length without saying much of anything at all. Are they clapping sarcastically? Ironically? Under duress? I may never know.
I started as a creative writing major nearly 20 years ago. I wrote some entertaining things, sure, but I was never able to fully commit. I was a writer who kept my writing at arm’s length, never quite giving it my all. I moved on, chasing meaning in work, promotions, and higher salaries.
Throughout that time, creativity continued to leak out of me, into musical instruments like the banjo, mystifying and occasionally hilarious work messages, and Jira bug tickets that read like detective crime serials. I’ve reconnected to that energy and am ready to share.
I’ll take that corporate absurdity and distill it into a potent elixir that you can then throw back like a fine mezcal. Don’t worry, I’ll precisely rate-limit my output so I don’t exhaust the absurdity supply. Every few weeks, I’ll share a new story inspired by the industry. So take a double shot of that mezcal, subscribe, and share your own war stories in the comments.