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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?

#231

Post by dkersten »

busymom0 wrote: post #145
lmueongoqx wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised once again by the nice and helpful community on HN. I anticipated most comments would be people telling me to get my head out of my ass and get to work. I hope you find a way to chill through life.

I think you question is very sincere and VERY UNIQUE for this community because every other question is asking for the exact opposite. That's why there are a lot of interesting replies as well as a lot of interest in the question itself. Is your hobby/"passions (which are not monetizable)" expensive? And are you 100% certain they are not monetizable? In today's world, I have yet to see something which is not monetiza…

> And are you 100% certain they are not monetizable?

I learned that once I try to monetize my hobbies, there’s a very real risk that they become stressful and no longer fun and invigorating. Sometimes it’s best to keep hobbies as just hobbies.

Or, at least, make sure you have some hobbies that will only ever stay hobbies. Nothing wrong with trying to do monetize something you love, just don’t let it be the only thing you love to do, so you still have something when you have a stressful day doing the first thing.

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

#232

Post by giantg2 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #119
elyobo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partner choice and choice whether to have children are other critical considerations in cost control.

Partner especially, you can always raise children on a budget.

Generally true. It gets more complicated if they have medical issues or a disability.

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

#233

Post by 38932ur98u »

Great post OP, one of the most relatable things I've seen on HN. To piggyback, does anybody here have any experience doing this while living in Europe as an American? Seems like there are generally fewer remote jobs here, especially ones that can be 60-80%.

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

#234

Post by ClikeX »

magicroot75 wrote: post #124
zikduruqe wrote: post #100

Just think. If your ability to get good quality health insurance/coverage wasn’t directly tied to having to be employed for those benefits, we all could pursue our passions and desires.

This is a common concern. But public health care really isn't THAT expensive. Something like $300/month.

I pay just about €150/month, and that's with added premiums for dental and what not. Which is pretty good.

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

#235

Post by black_puppydog »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #119
elyobo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partner choice and choice whether to have children are other critical considerations in cost control.

Partner especially, you can always raise children on a budget.

Yeah but chances are once you try, you realize it's no fun for either of you and your incentives change towards more lucrative jobs.

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

#236

Post by flurben »

Government developer roles can be sort of like this, it just depends on the details.

The general idea is that you're expected to fulfill a fixed set of responsibilities, which might be challenging for the first year or so. But as time rolls on, a decent employee can usually automate those things.

Typically you're just ignored, no one knows what you do except your boss. If you try to expand outside of the original scope of job duties, you'll be seen as a troublemaker.

And there's rarely any possibility of advancement, since government never promotes developers to the executive level, and advancement within the 'technology group' is usually predicated on your history of procurement, budgeting, and personnel management.

The difficult bit is getting that remote job, but hopefully that's changing due to COVID.

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

#237

Post by intrasight »

A common path to such a career is to have deep expertise in some esoteric(or deprecated) tech stack. Cobol programmer comes to mind. You may only be asked to help once a month (or even once a year) but when they need you they really need you, and are willing to pay handsomely.

The question brings to mind this story (if anyone has a reference please provide).

A company hires a management consultant to assist with cost cutting. After spending time on-site observing the workflow, he has a meeting with a senior management and gives his recommendations. He mentions a guy who sits in his office seemingly doing nothing, and suggests they let him go. The manager says no, he's a critical member. About once a month we have a really complex problem that requires a creative solution, and he always provides one.

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

#239

Post by allendoerfer »

gherkinnn wrote: post #138
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 f…

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

To truely leave a legacy, it would be great, if you could also miss what the original intentions and benefits of agile are and go on to raise a few teamleads and middle managers to use your buzzwords in the wrong context.

A true master craftsman in this area makes the right people feel more, but the whole organization be less agile. Your work is not completed, until developers visit threads like this to step into your footsteps.

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

#240

Post by abledon »

nathantotten wrote: post #165
Kneecaps07 wrote: post #146

This is unethical, but outsource yourself. Get contractor jobs and then hire cheap overseas workers to do the work and pocket the difference. If you can get a few of these gigs going and can manage your calendar you can probably cut yourself down to 20 hours a week. Just be better at hiding it than the guy we hired who got busted doing this literally within the first hour of his first day. Don't let your boss take ov…

This isn’t unethical. There are entire companies that do exactly this. If done well, this is actually an extremely valuable service. It would be unethical if you are hired as an employee and outsourced your work, but as a contractor this is fair game.

> It would be unethical if you are hired as an employee and outsourced your work

Haha oh god that is next level officesspace movie stuff

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