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

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

#1
Same as the popular question from 2021: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26721951 I'm asking again as a lot has changed in the past few years especially w.r.t LLMs, coding agents etc.

copy pasting from the op: "I'm an average developer looking for ways to work as little as humanely possible."

- I really don't care about the product I work on. I just want to do some task/project and checkout. - Fully remote will be ideal. - Salary can be on the low end. - I feel the world currently is too hyper-capitalistic and I don't think I fit in well. On top of that my country has a billion+ people and everything seems like battle for scraps.

Unless I hit home with some indie hacking/side project, I don't think this will be possible. I believe there must some niche apps/plugin/extension/ssydev roles for some crm/cms etc that might fit the bill.

Few point to note: - No, I'm not that depressed. I'm just deeply unhappy with the current state of things. - No, I'm not giving up on life. - It may look like I'm not be good fit for tech/programming jobs. But I still like tech and solving tech problems. I just dont want my life to revolve around it. - It could be that im not challenged well in my job. But I'm not sure whether I'd like to be drowned in work as well.

Thanks for any advice or hostile/dismissive comments you provide I appreciate it.

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

#8
If you like tech (sw dev in particular based on the roles) enough to do it but can't motivate yourself to do it for a job, consider making it a hobby and changing careers. Don't ruin your passion by making it a chore.

Jobs that are "low effort" are rare, usually you need one of:

- time: job is time consuming (think monitoring cameras for N hours a day)

- physical: job requires physical work (think sorting boxes in a warehouse or janitorial work)

- skilled: job requires certification/skill (think electrician or engineering)

- social: job requires interacting with humans (think customer support or sales)

Depending on you skillset/preferences select one or two and search for vocations/jobs. Jobs usually have a mix of them (and there are likely some more categories). Jobs always require effort, that's why people are paying for it. If you want to reduce time look for "part time" jobs.

If you are fine with mid-low pay, take a look at jobs in public institutions (Education, Government). They tend to have rather good long term working conditions and are commonly open to people changing careers into public service.

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

#9
Find a smallish company that exists for 15+ years and isn't acting like they're about to solve the biggest problem in human history or boasting about 12 gigabillion percent of growth in the last year. There are plenty of them but they easily fly under the radar, especially in older industries (real estate, newspapers, banking, &c.). You can try working for a governmental or non profit thing too

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

#10
post #9

Find a smallish company that exists for 15+ years and isn't acting like they're about to solve the biggest problem in human history or boasting about 12 gigabillion percent of growth in the last year. There are plenty of them but they easily fly under the radar, especially in older industries (real estate, newspapers, banking, &c.). You can try working for a governmental or non profit thing too

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