I don't know, maybe it took quite a bit of time and thinking to realize that the problem was simpler than it seemed. Maybe Charles was playing games to occupy his eyes and hands while he was thinking about the problem.
It's not that the problem was simple -- the other team's example shows that it was not. Rather, programmer C took the time to think about the problem enough, and write code that was elegant enough, that it __looked__ simple. Simple solutions almost always look easy in hindsight, but often are not simple to arrive at.
"It's not that the problem was simple -- the other team's example shows that it was not"
Not necessarily. It might show that the other team was either
(1) not smart enough to realize the problem's simplicity, or
(2) deliberately playing the political game of making the problem appear hard because they knew that in the end they'd get more recognition. The lead programmer, Alan, got to have three people working for him, which could have been a step up for him on the corporate ladder. The corporate world is full of this kind of empire-building.
The two teams were entirely independent, neither knew of the other, he wouldn't prove the other team no good.
Likewise if anything Charles made it blatant that he was not 'working', he was playing games and scribbling on paper with legs up on the table. Doesn't seem like feinting hard work.
