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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?

#941

Post by ProjectArcturis »

paul_f wrote: post #938
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #266

I had a data science position with a large non-tech company. It did B2B sales, and had a giant office for us, done up in brushed nickel and Edison light bulbs. The rest of the company was designed in standard cheap-cubicle format, but they took visitors (i.e. sales targets) through to see the data science team, so we got the fancy layout. After working there a few months, I realized that I was also there as part of t…

During down time, work on outside projects. Nobody knows which project you're working on. It's just a editor with code :-)

Good idea, but for data-security reasons, they disabled all the USB drives. It would have been quite a challenge to get the code out without a trace. Probably no one would have cared if I emailed it to myself, but it would have been a very bad look.

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

#942

Post by samsquire »

RGamma wrote: post #681
imagine99 wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I know someone who had to show up 8 hours a day for 20 years without anything to do Well, now don't keep us in suspense! What was his job? How did he get it? That's kinda the point of this whole thread ;-) Also, yes to your part about people being dead inside because of their job (these exist as well and there life basically ends when they retire... can be equally sad). As for the ancient Greeks, well, that's a bit…

> Well, now don't keep us in suspense! What was his job? How did he get it? Abridged version: ~1970s Germany, vocational training as welder, employed at Hoesch (later ThyssenKrupp), well-paid factory job. He later lost his position due to automation, became depressed and was placed into a "Sozialbetrieb" (this can mean many things. In this case it's a workshop meant for the disabled to ensure means to participate in…

In other words, the reason we cannot have nice things (universal basic income) is because people stand in the way of progress.

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

#943

Post by JuanCasian »

Hey!

Not sure if anyone already mentioned this but maybe is not about the job but about how you do it.

I would recommend reading the book "The 4 Hour Workweek" from Tim Ferriss. There he gives kind of a framework on how to reduce your work time so that you can focus on what you really care about.

Like I mentioned before maybe instead of looking for a job, you just need to look for ways to make your current one more automated or how to work less on it

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

#944

Post by tangiebaby »

It’s probably working in the cloud. Once you set up a system for a company that’s automated and grows elastically over time, you can move on to setting up a system for a new company. Find a job in the cloud my friend. That’s what I’m working towards.

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

#945

Post by tootie »

3minus1 wrote: post #771
tootie wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 20 years of working and a sense of genuine burnout, I landed a "Dream Job" a few months ago where I'm doing tech leadership at a mid-size non-profit. We have a small familial team, a set of worthwhile and genuinely beloved public services and mission of doing good. There's still politics and revenue issues and all the sorts of stuff that a go along with any company, but it's a lot less aggressive. Work-life bal…

Man I'm so cynical. As soon as I see "I landed a great job a few months ago," my thought is just wait a few more months. I hope the job stays great for you.

I think I've already seen the ugly side and decided it's not ugly enough to discourage me.

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

#946

Post by craigtp »

kelp wrote: post #907
chad_strategic wrote: post #741

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you're the only person who knows something, you become a liability." So I had that philosophy when I was in the Marine Corps, well because I wanted my Marines and myself to survive and carry out the mission. Sharing knowledge in the business world, never. That's a great way to lose a job.

> Sharing knowledge in the business world, never. That's a great way to lose a job. If you're working at a functional organization that rewards growth, never sharing knowledge will ensure you put quite a low ceiling on your advancement. I've written countless promotion justifications. Been on countless promotion review boards at several very successful tech companies. Being the best programmer, or what ever, is only…

> If you're working at a functional organization that rewards growth

So that excludes about 95% of them.

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

#947

Post by sidlls »

dontreact wrote: post #902
sidlls wrote: post #891

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me you mistook one kind of self-interest for a labor toward progress. And you still do, for that matter.

You’re gonna have to unpack that quite a bit more for me to understand what you are trying to say

Hacker News has always been about self-interest.

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

#948

Post by Big0_nlogn »

kelp wrote: post #616
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…

I think this is the better advice here, and fits with some comments I left elsewhere in this thread about people I know working at MSFT and putting in only a handful of hours a week and still getting raises and promotions. It's easy to do little when everyone expects everything to take forever because of how heavy the processes are in the organization.

Working in govt is the way to achieve what OP wants. Especially in positions that are unionized. We call these people "lifers" or "gamers". They know how to game the union seniority system. Most of these people know how to phone in their work just enough to not get noticed and hop from one seniority-based position to the next before anyone catches on. By the time they've put in their 25 years, you've got a guy who majored in chemistry getting ready to retire from a senior software dev position. You can't fire them because they're union and it would take 6 months to a year to get all the documentation in order. And by that time, they've transferred to a different position.

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

#949

Post by wing-_-nuts »

foxhop wrote: post #325
elyobo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

Sure, you don't have to send them to college, but if you don't help them pay for some sort of education or training after high school, you're doing them a massive disservice if you can afford it at all.

You may say, oh well they can just get loans, true, but you can only get so much in federal loans before you have to get private, non dischargeable loans for ~ 7% interest.

Alternatively, you might say oh, they can just join the military. Only problem is the Air Force and Navy don't want little Johnny and now he's getting blown up doing patrols with the 3rd ID in Iraq (I lost my childhood best friend this way).

TLDR: If you don't want to help your kid pay for college or trade school, just don't have them. No one should have to go deeply in debt or put their lives at risk to earn a decent living.

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

#950

Post by eclat »

samstave wrote: post #477
devtul wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a UX/UI guy that worked for two big canadian banks at the same time. He was moving to Bank B, and did it for three months, just enough to lock in his annual bonus on Bank A. Oh, and he was praised in Bank A for his work in this period.

I have a very good friend, who was also a fairly accomplished engineer at Google for a time... He, in the past, had like five jobs - he outsourced all his work to devs in Croatia, and he would take on jobs and present the work on a regular basis - but he was doing none of it.

Winning at life.
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