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

> I'm basically in a job that is quite important for my org, I get compliments for good job, but I hate most aspects of my daily work since the tech stack is complex and fugly

I think a lot of people can actually relate to this. IMHO, a good way to think about it is to consider that there's more granularity to work than a black-or-white "I like my job" / "I hate my job". Maybe you dislike meetings, but enjoy the feeling of triumph after fixing bugs, or maybe it's vice-versa. Maybe you enjoy helping coworkers get unstuck with your expertise despite working on a crappy stack. Maybe you take satisfaction in seeing the burndown chart go down each week, or maybe thinking about how to be a better tech interviewer is something that interests you. There's usually _something_ - even if it's a small trivial thing - that is nice about your day to day.

I often think of it in terms of parallels to meditation: honing self-awareness skills lets you realize small things that you might not have been aware of before. Walking to the supermarket might be a tiring chore, but hey look I never noticed that tree blooms beautifully in march, or hey I started to notice a small difference in my stamina, etc. You are in charge of your (limited) attention span, and you can choose to focus on the positive things - no matter how small - and let the rest naturally fall by the sidelines.

Yes, they are either over-heavy on process or over-heavy on micromanagement

Each creates different kinds of misery, and could be exploitable by OP for his goals.

The over-process version is likely more durable (both the org not imploding soon, and the position lasting) and potentially less interpersonal misery.

I think more dysfunctional companies are constantly working hard and sprinting... in circles.

They are making no real progress, but on the inside they’re all working hard at accomplishing nothing.

First off, I think the primary objective should be creating value for the company you work for. Bums in seats, lines of code written does not always produce value.

I think any position where you can automate away your daily tasks, and that's an expectation of the job, is great. There is no shortage of companies that maybe run on legacy software that requires a ton of effort to keep things running. You'd be surprised how often companies do things just because that's how they've always done it.

The other great option, which is what I did, is to become an important part of the team, and start negotiating for shorter work weeks.

I think you can find what you're looking for if you combine these strategies, and nobody would fault you on it.

> How has this backfired, I'm curious? .. > I'm imagining that the future-you's fail to seamlessly slot-in, and management types don't have an appetite for broken eggs on the way to an omelette, when they already have an omelette in you?

No, not that way - I took about 9 months off in the last 4 years, which has forced a replacement of my past self.

But there are still problems which are "new".

So in a manner of speaking, but more along the lines of filtering out all the easy problems with automation, documentation, others with similar skills - by the time the buck stops at my desk, I have nowhere to move it to.

Instead of being obsolete, I'm a SPOF higher up the problem complexity.

The more guesswork I do, the better I am at guessing what's wrong and every time I pull off a further "last minute miracle", the more entrenched I become, rather than obsolete.

> For me, the anxiety would come from the question "sure, I have this here and now, but would I be able to reproduce this elsewhere, or what this a fluke?"

The success part of it was a total fluke - lots of bets on me by others which came through.