Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?

Defense industry. You get paid reasonably well to work at the pace of your government customers, who are almost never in a hurry.

I suppose I am on a similar boat wrt job satisfaction and the direction things have gone and are going in this industry. I am also one step ahead of you, from the sound of it, in a job that doesn't require me to devote my life to it and gives me time for personal projects, gym, and just figuring out shit in life. This is not to boast, but to give you a heads-up: I haven't figured out much of anything just yet, and I am not strictly sure my current position is significantly better than what was before it. Perhaps slightly better, with more time to think, and having somewhat detached myself emotionally from the job. Which is to say, if you can take a break altogether with somebody else supporting you financially, I'd do that and really consider things as an "outsider" to your own life. Also talk to people to get more perspective. Otherwise, I think I concur with the other suggestions given here.

In the US, I guess, maybe, depending on the specific defense contractor? I dunno if I'd classify it as the type of low effort OP is looking for.

Also it sounds like OP is in India or China. In China, that is definitely not how defense industry work works. Idk about India.

Government-related jobs.