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

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

#641

Post by throwaway77384 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

Two words: Public. Sector.

At least here in the UK (think NHS back office / government jobs) I can tell you, it's sort of unbelievable how little attention anyone pays to work getting done. At times I seriously looked around me, thinking "wow, nobody does anything, nobody admits it, and we are all in on it".

Fair word of warning, I didn't go into it wanting little work. I went into it wanting to accomplish something / get some work done and it nearly drove me crazy over the year I spent there.

There were many weeks, where by the end of the week I wasn't sure whether I had done any work at all. There will be meetings, which will take up most of your time, but outside of that, by the end, when I had given up on trying to achieve anything, I literally sat there coding all day and nobody batted an eye.

There was some remote working ability, which by now, thanks to COVID, will probably have increased a fair bit.

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

#642

Post by dyingkneepad » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:43 PM UTC

CamelCaseName wrote: post #516

glitchc wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent points except (5) Usually immoral and often illegal

> and often illegal Source? As long as it's not explicitly stated, and in my experience, it never is, then there should be no issue with this.

Maybe in the US it is not explicitly stated. My previous contract stated explicitly that I had to work from 9:00 to 18:48 five days a week, and do 1:00 of lunch between 11:00 and 15:00. Anything deviating from that would be accounted in the Bank of Hours and be subject to additional laws regard pay.

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

#643

Post by delecti » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:44 PM UTC

hnarn wrote: post #606

an_opabinia wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> look for dysfunctional companies This theme is common in the thread and is wildly wrong. First I recommend reading Bullshit Jobs to get some perspective on how others have fulfilled your goals. Big, rich, process-driven companies and institutions are the easiest to do the least work in for the longest time . Process is the toxin low-effort thrives on. An admin role at Google pays more and works much less than an en…

You're not wrong, but I also firmly believe that most if not all dysfunctional companies are extremely process heavy.

There's definitely lots of overlap in the venn diagram of "process heavy" and "dysfunctional", but there are plenty of each category that is not the other. Lots of industries require process, and lots of startup type places are dysfunctional without being process heavy.

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

#644

Post by random3 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:44 PM UTC

Why not be a code-ops-janitor? I'd be willing to discuss this with you, see if there's a fit and actually give you this amazing job.

If your actually average good, you could work on toil only - this would require a decent level of discipline for the team you'd be working with to select toil work that could be done in 2-3 hours. Every issue repository has a long tail of issues that never get done, some may just need closing, etc.

You'd take an all the work that never gets done, be paid for what you do and enjoy life.

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

#645

Post by julienb_sea » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:44 PM UTC

robertakarobin wrote: post #519

Try being a product manager of a web service at a big corporation. I stopped and went back to programming because of how little there was to do. You said you don't want to manage people, but in my experience all I had to do was: - E-mail calendar invites for a meeting - Show up to said meeting - State the topic, point to an engineer at random and say, "What do you think?" - Zone out for the rest of the meeting, zonin…

This is amazingly relatable. I do appreciate the work, coordination and decision making that PMs drive, but in practice it does not require much work.

In truth though it does require a lot of meetings. Not great for a 2-hr work day.

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

#646

Post by jb775 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:45 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #455

lifeslogit wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many years my partner and I operated in the same way. I paid our rent, utilities and food while she spent on her hobbies and saved. I was not unhappy during this time because I didn't want much. A few years ago though, I became a bit more financially aware after having my first soul crushing job and realizing I couldn't rely on work to produce income in the same "easy" way I had when I was younger. The emotional…

"...having my first soul crushing job and realizing I couldn't rely on work to produce income in the same "easy" way I had when I was younger. The emotional cost had become too high." I feel exactly like this. My wife has basically changed what she wants (or stopped hiding it) now that we are married. She wants a big fancy house and she wants to live in an suburbanized and expensive area. She originally told me she w…

Either dump her ass or go 100% OfficeSpace on her and stop caring about being responsible and focus on enjoying life.

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

#647

Post by toomuchredbull » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:45 PM UTC

gaws wrote: post #359

iso1631 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Cool.... so what do you do?

Sounds like some sort of audio tech?

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

#648

Post by juancn » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:47 PM UTC

Look for a large (huge if you can) company. Such as Oracle or IBM. Find a dev spot in some product (not consulting).

The process is so thick, that you'll do hardly any coding, mostly attending remote meetings.

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

#649

Post by fsloth » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:47 PM UTC

yellowstuff wrote: post #388

foxhop wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids are not that expensive. You do not have to send them to college, you just have to love them, teach them, care for them. Sure you will have to buy more food, and you might need a bigger house/apartment.

My opinion only- For the middle class going to college is not seen as optional. Doing the same expensive activities as the other middle class kids is not seen as optional. There are millions of working class people in the US with good lives, but most middle class people would never seriously consider not following middle class norms. So raising a kid who's middle or upper class is actually quite expensive, and that's…

Man, that's weird. US really is different to our North-European way of life.

We are middle class and have two kids but our kids have close to no hobby expenses. Our son is vehemently anti-hobby and daughters dance and piano lessons are not really that expensive. On the other hand we have no-one close for whom we should "keep up appearances".

Government will pay for the kids degrees. Ditto for healthcare and the dentists for kids are excellent.

I know some kids play hockey or whatever and that can be a bit steep but never have I felt such would be a mandatory hobby. Neither of my kids really showed interest for any team sports and we gladly obliged not to force introduce them.

Sure you need to buy food for 4 persons and wash a bit more laundry, but that's about it when I think of the "overhead" caused by kids. The necessity for an apartment with a few more rooms is probably the biggest financial burden but loans are cheap.

The fact only one of us is capable of working due to health reasons is a much bigger issue financially than having kids.

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

#650

Post by lmueongoqx » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 4:47 PM UTC

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…

Thanks for the ideas ! 4. is probably what I'll end up doing, the niche field being some sort of devops / sysadmin job.

While reading the impressive amount of responses this thread got I realized I do enjoy helping other developers and generally keeping stuff working. I still end up spending nights tinkering with my .vimrc, it's not like I can't watch a computer anymore without puking.

Good luck to you too !