I know right now you want to focus on your hobbies/passion and you don't need much and you don't care about anything else... I don't know what age are you but I would suggest that, while try to enjoy your hobbies/passion as much as you can, think and plan for the future, and what a dire situation you would find yourself if you're in a low paying dead end job for 10 or 20 years... You'd be basically digging a hole for yourself that would be difficult to get out.
Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
21–30 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#22> devops/sysadmin While these certainly exist, you would need to know what your doing to not need to do much. And almost impossible to be remote.
SRE would of course require to be on-site but I think building some docker images and checking if some LAMP stacks run fine could be done remote.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#23An inhouse DBA (preferably something like SQL Server as it's quite straightforward). Get it set up/automated (back-ups etc) then the a good indicator that you are doing well is if you've nothing much to do.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#24Well I up voted because I look into FIRE and retire as early as possible.
One way is to get highly paid job as early as possible and invest most of the income.
What OP describes might be different approach, get easy going job and well not really retire but have a lifestyle that would be like a retiree.
Both have their ups and downs. I would rather go with first solution if I were young and have opportunity. Second option is more viable if someone is in his 40ties I believe.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#25I do kinda understand where you're coming from but I want to warn you against this approach. These jobs you mention, they DO exist. But they break people and make them intensely miserable. Look into "boreout" (as opposed to burnout) to learn more about this. You will be very happy for the first few months, being able to browse HN, news sites and Reddit all day while nobody cares about what you do, nobody wants your i…
Thank you for your advice. I do not have it in me anymore to get the high paying job and go all-out, unfortunately. I understand the really boring jobs would probably lead to depression and not much else. I think a good alternative path would be to look for real jobs but as a part-timer. I'm not sure if there are any ~20 hours a week dev jobs, but that would most likely be enough. I'm passionate about playing a compe…
Well, you could teach that sport to others (as a part-time coach for amateurs, for example), you could create training videos and materials, write books or a blog with tactics, tricks etc. If you're not the only person in the world into this sport, I am sure there are many other people who share your passion and would be happy to pay you for materials or training as they themselves will only have limited time to invest in it. You don't have to be a pro yourself. If you're not a total amateur, there will always be people who know less about it than you, are new to the sport etc. and they can be your audience. Also, consider looking at organizations adjacent to that sport or sports in general. There are a lot, from youth outreach NGOs to sport centers, to clubs where you could work as an assistant or clerk but still your work would have to do with the sport itself. Again, this is unlikely to make you rich but might be an option to work in an area you like. And who knows, even if you won't be a world-class athlete yourself, you might manage, teach or support one, that would be pretty great as well, no?
I understand and accept what you say about the high-paying all-in job option. It's not for everybody and can also be damaging.
If you want part-time dev jobs, of course they're out there's lots of competition and not necessarily a lot of job safety. The lowest end are gig economy jobs (like Upwork and Fiverr) but again, buyers there are sometimes also looking for an easy, reliable, part-time go-to guy for regular jobs that maybe have a unique skill set. You can always give it a try. Chances are that you will not make enough money doing this (most likely) to live comfortably in a highly developed country (I don't know how to express this in the "political correct" way du jour but you know what I mean). However, the advantages are guaranteed 100% remote and no long-term commitment, so if you find something better, you can always take it.
Wishing you all the best. And seriously, do report back some time how it works out for you. I'm sure many have the same dream and wonder "what if..."
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#26You can do all of this and earn a high salary if you become an... ...agile coach Read a few books, recycle stuff you find online, do a presentation on neurodiversity. It really is money for old rope. I knew of one who worked in a UK gov department who got £1250 a day, charged for 5 days, and only turned up for 4.5. Did it for years.
Agile coaching is it.
It's literally money for nothing.
I'm not an Agile coach, but have seen enough to know that it really is nonsense snake oil that large organisations will pay incredible sums of money for.
I sort of wonder if the negative real value of the Agile industry means the price is effectively limitless, given that the whole thing is a Fugazi so the bill is whatever the buyer is foolish enough to pay.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#27The best I can suggest is sysadmin for some boring government agency. It doesn't fit the "fully remote" part, but otherwise you are free to do whatever you want as long as everything is up and running. You also don't need to manage anyone, although you do have to talk to angry users once in a while.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#28I 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 less work than people capable of doing it.
BTW I recommend against startups (pre big funding). In startups, the owners watch costs like hawks and there's zero chance of slacking off.
BTW2: if you're good with people, I recommend a Scrum master role. From my observations over the years, these folks have almost zero workload and absolutely zero responsibility for anything. It's slacker's paradise - you just have to be comfortable with babbling on meetings/calls for the majority of the day.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#29This is an awesome question. I hope someone has good strategies for you. Life should be spent doing the things you find worthwhile, and the fact is, not all of those things are monetizable. Given how esteem- and success driven HN as a platform is... you might not get too many ideas since I suppose people want to maintain their "hireable" status. Success and "loving your job" are more or less empty phrases unless you…
I'm surprised once again by the nice and helpful community on HN. I anticipated most comments would be people telling me to get my head out of my ass and get to work.
I hope you find a way to chill through life.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#30You can do all of this and earn a high salary if you become an... ...agile coach Read a few books, recycle stuff you find online, do a presentation on neurodiversity. It really is money for old rope. I knew of one who worked in a UK gov department who got £1250 a day, charged for 5 days, and only turned up for 4.5. Did it for years.
But that's all synchronous work - running courses, giving presentations, coaching people.
If their objective is to only work 2 hours a day, the last thing they want is hours of meetings every day where your absence will be immediately noticed.