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?

#991

Post by submittochrist » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 9:45 AM UTC

edem wrote: post #842

kjjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote: post #397

I can respect this opinion and as I get older I realize how little I actually care about work. I am not really passionate about tech, security, etc, I just know a lot about it. I basically never talk about it with anyone, I have absolutely no interest in meetups, and I don't care about the news (past the minimum needed to keep up to date for my job) The only thing I care about is money, and making more money. I don't…

Yea I just finished with a "training" about D&I. I just don't get it. Those people who didn't care still won't care but they will be pissed too. It won't have an effect on those who cared. At this point I think it is a necessity for most companies to do this shit though. I've heard stories about investors pulling their support because the company wasn't "diverse" enough. They are trying to force a solution for this C…

You don't get more women into IT for the same reason you don't get more women interested in steam-trains.

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

#992

Post by cloudedcordial » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 2:42 AM UTC

kelp wrote: post #538

gopalv wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 There's a class of "crystallized intelligence" jobs which are about what happened before rather than what you do today. There's an intersection between that sort of knowledge and a certain fluid intelligence to slot it in where things fit. I'm in one of those jobs right now, where the…

This reminds me of advice I got from the VP of Eng at my first real full time tech job. This was back around late 1999 / early 2000. Peak of the dot com era. He told me what most people think of as job security is totally wrong. If you're the only person who knows something, you become a liability. But if you're constantly teaching and sharing that knowledge you become incredibly valuable to the organization. That's…

I've encountered a totally different school of thought on job security in the early 2000s after the fall of the dot com era. Many jobs were cut. "Outsourcing" became a dirty word.

My good friend got a year-long internship in banking industry in early 2000s. When I asked him how the real world worked, he was taught to hoard as much knowledge as he possibly could and not share it. Sharing knowledge means someone could do his exact job. He had no desire to learn new skills. He worked with folks who had been with the organization for 20+ years and that's how the workplace worked. He and his colleagues were so afraid that their job would be outsourced.

We are not friends anymore. I bet he still works for the same organization. He may not be wrong about hoarding the knowledge and working in a slower pace industry: Doing so could be an easy ticket to gain job security for life.

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

#993

Post by hippo77 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 1:37 PM UTC

craigtp wrote: post #946

kelp wrote: post #907

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

This. So many people on here keep making that mistake over and over.

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

#994

Post by hippo77 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 1:48 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…

You're in big trouble there, friend. This website may help save your ass http://www.realworlddivorce.com/

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

#995

Post by hippo77 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 2:41 PM UTC

restingrobot wrote: post #883

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #841

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is THIS why Satya Nadella is so keen on getting everyone back in their cubicles. It makes everyone look like they're banging on their keyboards, nevermind that they're sending pictures on .... Teams? Can you do that on Teams? We use Slack. I was curious why he thought, "So much work gets done around the watercooler." I just thought he was a holdover from an earlier time. He's a smart dude, I'm not denying that. And I…

I think what he meant was that by being together and discussing problems we solve them a lot faster. This is absolutely true in my job. If I didn't know my team loved being remote so much, we would have been back in the office as soon as was safe.

Yes, we do solve problems faster if we're around the watercooler, but we're also miserable, and wondering how to escape. Be careful what you wish for.

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

#996

Post by hippo77 » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 6:57 PM UTC

busymom0 wrote: post #154

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…

OP does state "I do not want to manage people" which might go against the "you just have to be comfortable with babbling on meetings/calls for the majority of the day". And being in meetings/calls can be a very taxing job. Talking is exhausting from my experience at a call centre.

Listening to other people talk is even more exhausting.

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

#997

Post by realaether » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:53 AM UTC

radiator wrote: post #965

shatnersbassoon wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the organisation is big enough and dysfunctional enough, your absence will not be noticed for long periods of time. Just make sure whenever you are seen you have the appearance of being in a huge rush.

There was a well-written story about someone in a large company who was by some coincidence suddenly left without duties and went on for years doing exactly that. But I no longer remember the source or whether it was a fictional story.

Could it be the [Forgotten Employee: The American Dream](https://sites.google.com/site/forgottenemployee/)?

> After 30 days, I became convinced that I was a forgotten, non digestible entity in the corporate stomach. No man ever comes over to ask me for anything - although I am but a Manager, and Directors roam the hallways like rabid hyenas, I am much too senior to all of them for them to attempt an attack. Every once in a while, the phone will ring, and an old acquantance will ask for help solving a problem - I gladly comply. Sometimes, I let the phone ring... but the voicemail light never comes on. They move on to the next target, under the false assumption that I am much too busy to be bothered.

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

#998

Post by zedd0 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 5:25 AM UTC

zedd0 wrote: post #411

protonimitate wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really disagree with this point of view. I don't think anyone should feel indebted to their circumstance/employer just because there are others out there without the same opportunities. Is it entitlement? Maybe. But isn't it also entitlement for companies to try to squeeze the maximum amount of productivity out of employees for the least amount of compensation? Why can't they see that there are less fortunate compa…

I think you're really reaching with that analogy. No, that's not entitlement - that's capitalism. Compensation is always a two-way agreement between the employee and employer - you're never doing a job that you didn't agree to do. If you agree to it, that means you consider the compensation worth the effort. On the other hand, for someone to accept a job and then go to work with the intention of being as unproductive…

I think I replied to the wrong comment somehow lol, just re-read this and can't see how my comment relates to the parent-comment. Don't recall what I was responding to either.

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

#999

Post by nickd2001 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 1:24 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #135

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.

Agreed :)

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

#1000

Post by nickd2001 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 1:27 PM UTC

thiago_fm wrote: post #432

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This phase sounds to be toxic and sick. It's almost as if people need a salary to feel useful. What a society we live in.

I meant a purpose in life, not necessarily paid. I mean, just something like helping people. I guess it would be totally fine to do what the OP suggested i:e as little as possible at work, if you had a lot of family committments, friends you were helping, or your own projects, were trying to be a musician or something. But... if you skyved at work and didn't do much else either, you might get unhappy. Does seem to me that it ought to be possible to be fulfilled at work if you find the right job...