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

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

#131

Post by JamesAdir »

iso1631 wrote: post #123
fsloth wrote: post #16

This is an awesome question. I hope someone has good strategies for you. Life should be spent doing the things you find worthwhile, and the fact is, not all of those things are monetizable. Given how esteem- and success driven HN as a platform is... you might not get too many ideas since I suppose people want to maintain their "hireable" status. Success and "loving your job" are more or less empty phrases unless you…

My job allows me to go back stage at Glastonbury and track-side visits at the Olympics, front seat views of royal weddings, orchestral pit on last night of the proms, and I have a fairly sedantry job of mostly pushing buttons. Colleagues have spent days in jungles building bridges to drive cars over them, have got to know people living in random villages from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and share in their culture, have m…

What's your job?

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

#132

Post by jhgb »

lmueongoqx wrote: post #65
killtimeatwork wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> During stand-ups when you have to explain what you did, you can say that you worked on your own thing, and that you helped the other person. Also, pick a role where you're constantly blocked by other people. So, working in a big company, where every function (renting a VM, setting up a DB schema, adding an AD group etc.) is centralized in one team, possibly overloaded and not too competent, possibly outsourced for…

>pick a role where you're constantly blocked by other people Excellent advice. I love how HN still ends up thriving for perfection. If I compile all the comments in this thread I'll have the best optimized way to become the ultimate do-nothing slacker piece of crap.

> the ultimate do-nothing slacker piece of crap

Just call yourself a company and then you'll be called "an efficient business". ;)

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

#133

Post by burntoutfire »

iso1631 wrote: post #123
fsloth wrote: post #16

This is an awesome question. I hope someone has good strategies for you. Life should be spent doing the things you find worthwhile, and the fact is, not all of those things are monetizable. Given how esteem- and success driven HN as a platform is... you might not get too many ideas since I suppose people want to maintain their "hireable" status. Success and "loving your job" are more or less empty phrases unless you…

My job allows me to go back stage at Glastonbury and track-side visits at the Olympics, front seat views of royal weddings, orchestral pit on last night of the proms, and I have a fairly sedantry job of mostly pushing buttons. Colleagues have spent days in jungles building bridges to drive cars over them, have got to know people living in random villages from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and share in their culture, have m…

> My job allows me to go back stage at Glastonbury and track-side visits at the Olympics, front seat views of royal weddings, orchestral pit on last night of the proms, and I have a fairly sedantry job of mostly pushing buttons.

I had a similar job once, where I worked in TV coverage of final table of WSOP (World Series of Poker). I was around the poker celebs at the time, preparing talking points for my boss who interacted with them, even have somewhere a photo of me sitting at the final table. My ultimate conclusion is... so what? Beyond a cool story to share with people interested in poker, there's little value in that for me, and I was a poker nerd then.

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

#134

Post by ikerdanzel »

lmueongoqx wrote: post #32
poisonborz wrote: post #15

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to focus on hobbies/life and not caring much about working time job - I would guess most people fall on this side, actually (and they don't even have too much of hobbies either). However, the way you wrote this post, it strucks me that maybe you have burnout, or you're depressed - as if you reach out to your passions not mainly because you like them, but because those ne…

Thanks for the kind words, I'm absolutely not depressed ! I'm very happy with my life outside of work. Some days I even feel euphoric being lucky as I am, being able to play my favorite sport and having a loving family. I'm only trying to optimize by reducing the time spent working and thinking about work, which I never see bringing me anything else than money.

We work because we need money to live. Unfortunately many got blinded with corporate ladder climbing that makes one live to work and die for it even though they don't like the work itself. Good for you. Wish you luck getting that job. Live long and prosper.

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

#135

Post by tonyedgecombe »

nickd2001 wrote: post #109

It sounds to me like you're experiencing burnout (possibly lockdown-related) and/or have worked unsatisfying jobs and/or for not-so-great employers. I worry that the strategy you declare you intend to pursue, while pragmatic, won't lead to long-term happiness or fulfilment. We all need to feel useful and have a real mission for at least some of the time. Hopefully you could find something, maybe part-time, at a gover…

We all need to feel useful and have a real mission for at least some of the time.

That doesn't have to come from w**k though. It's ok to have a job just to pay the bills and get your fulfilment from other parts of your life.

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

#136

Post by JamesAdir »

Remote support team in shifts. It has usually zero responsibility as your shift ends since someone else is on duty, it can have enough compensation if you work for a long time for a US or a EU company. And after a while it's gets very repetitive since you are becoming very proficient in your domain. If you don't have any aspirations of moving up the ladder, it can be also something you can be hired for even in older age.

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

#138

Post by gherkinnn »

killtimeatwork wrote: post #28

I think it's probably fairly random. I.e. you're just as likely to have a "do nothing" job in a FAANG as in some other random corps. But I don't think you can start doing nothing right after being hired - usually people are hired because there's more work in a team that the existing headcount can handle. So, you have to work for some time and then count on "falling into the cracks" - landing in a place where there's…

Anything *agile related bullshit job will do, really.

Scrum master, agile coach, what have you. SM certs are easy to get with minimal investment. A meeting here, some buzzwords there and compile the results regularly in lengthy confluence pages nobody will ever read. Automate much of it and maybe generate a graph or two to present during reviews.

OP will have to organise retros, groomings, etc. Invent ever changing formats. Remind everybody to stick to the rulez, but don't do much else. Keeps people on their toes. At minimal effort.

Have regular catch-ups with various people. They're essentially coffee breaks, but you pretend to be productive and maybe generate a protocol. Plus you get to suck up to all the important people.

Bonus points for regularly posting obnoxious agile methodology articles on your companies intranet or Linkedin.

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

#139

Post by twobitshifter »

If company still wants you to put in the same 40 hours, I’d suggest a 4 days on / 2 off work schedule. You work 9 hours a day 4 days in a row and then take 2 off

Over a leap year, you’ll have 36*61 hours which is 2196 hours, actually more than the 2080 hours most people work. If you work 8.5 hours a day, you’ll come in only 6 hours short of a 40 hours work week.

(I haven’t tried this myself and I didn’t come up with the idea, but it’s always been something that I thought would be cool to do)

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

#140

Post by j10c »

gorpomon wrote: post #115

I love this question for its honesty. Frankly if I had a job I just needed technical competence on without much thought, I'd probably hire you. Our 1-on-1's would be brief and probably just be you demoing whatever hobby it is you alluded to. As long as you can crank out some decent code, I don't see a reason why a person who needs some quality work done shouldn't at least give your desired arrangement a chance. Unfor…

Can you share product you're referring?
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