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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?

#71

Post by wubbalub »

lmueongoqx wrote: post #65
killtimeatwork wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> During stand-ups when you have to explain what you did, you can say that you worked on your own thing, and that you helped the other person. Also, pick a role where you're constantly blocked by other people. So, working in a big company, where every function (renting a VM, setting up a DB schema, adding an AD group etc.) is centralized in one team, possibly overloaded and not too competent, possibly outsourced for…

>pick a role where you're constantly blocked by other people Excellent advice. I love how HN still ends up thriving for perfection. If I compile all the comments in this thread I'll have the best optimized way to become the ultimate do-nothing slacker piece of crap.

Always strive to be the best at what you do.

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

#72

Post by mysterydip »

lmueongoqx wrote: post #54
mysterydip wrote: post #46

Hey, at least you're honest. Is the problem that your work has no meaning? There are plenty of nonprofits that are slugging away using inefficient processes that could benefit from a developer that makes them custom software. Maybe there's one out there that aligns with your hobbies?

I do some pro bono work for local teams related to my hobby. I'm afraid I would grow to hate the job and the hobby itself if it became real work .

How about something like making some open source or similar projects related to your hobby and having a patreon that people can support you with? Would depend how large and generous the potential audience is whether that would be enough to sustain you.

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

#73

Post by jpttsn »

Business are often happy to pay a high effective hourly rate. Consulting is easier than rank and file employment, but you seem to also want job security and predictability.

“Get away with” however indicates you want a “do nothing job”:

Option 1: where the manager doesn’t know/care upfront how little you work. That’s a game of exploring information asymmetries. I’d look for inexperienced managers, people hiring for jobs they have little knowledge about. That’s more important than the actual job description. You can prey on business leaders that are in over their head or have too much capital for their own good. But you’d have to beware so the business itself isn’t too risky, lest you spend all your time job hunting.

Option 2: where the manager can’t fire you even if they want to. Where I live some of that comes automatically with seniority. Joining a union can help as well. Or else playing politics: making the right friends and gathering dirt on them. After attaining the position, incompetence is your friend. Make a point of fucking things up (on purpose) until your responsibilities get taken away.

Option 3: I don’t have anything personally against your position. I’d recommend soul searching just how far you want to stretch it: if it’s okay to trick your employer out of a salary, you might take it a notch further and find a well paying career in outright fraud. I bet ethics are a barrier to entry in many gray area careers.

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

#74

Post by znpy »

jpttsn wrote: post #73

Business are often happy to pay a high effective hourly rate. Consulting is easier than rank and file employment, but you seem to also want job security and predictability. “Get away with” however indicates you want a “do nothing job”: Option 1: where the manager doesn’t know/care upfront how little you work. That’s a game of exploring information asymmetries. I’d look for inexperienced managers, people hiring for jo…

> Make a point of fucking things up (on purpose) until your responsibilities get taken away.

Ah, right in the feels.

When I was younger I had a colleague playing that game, and he was successful.

We would go to great lengths to have him not involved in delicate (and stressful) tasks.

Looking back, that was dumb. I should have had him involved as much as possible, even if it meant jeopardizing client contracts, customers' infrastructure or even customers data.

I should have forced the company to actually face the issue.

So to sum up: yes that is a valid recommendation.

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

#75

Post by apexalpha »

I don't know about putting in the least amount of effort for 5 days a week. But what I do know is that in my country, the Netherlands, part-time work is more and more becoming the standard. Already, 75% of women and 30% of men work 32 hours a week or less. In many sectors the fulltime standard has been lowered to 36 hours, which means every other Friday off.

I myself started on 40 and will move to 32 hours somewhere next year. It's your right by law to reduce your hours for the same pay/hour.

So my advice would be to look for remote only dev jobs in the Netherlands, and just ask to work 24h or 32h a week. It's very common here and won't be a roadblock.

Although this is going to entirely depend on how much money you actually need to get by.

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

#76

Post by runawaybottle »

jpttsn wrote: post #73

Business are often happy to pay a high effective hourly rate. Consulting is easier than rank and file employment, but you seem to also want job security and predictability. “Get away with” however indicates you want a “do nothing job”: Option 1: where the manager doesn’t know/care upfront how little you work. That’s a game of exploring information asymmetries. I’d look for inexperienced managers, people hiring for jo…

I would characterize this person’s goal as a ‘change of pace’, which is worthy in a long term career. At some point he/she might want the pace accelerated again.

In a great company you can find the change of pace internally, but unfortunately this not an option everywhere.

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

#78

Post by petercooper »

ozim wrote: post #24

Well 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 op…

Barista FIRE is a term used in the FIRE space that could fit this. You build up less savings but keep things ticking over with a lower level (in terms of stress, pay, and time) job than you might have otherwise. It seems like the OP is looking for a tech equivalent of a barista job.

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

#79

Post by pdimitar »

poisonborz wrote: post #15

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to focus on hobbies/life and not caring much about working time job - I would guess most people fall on this side, actually (and they don't even have too much of hobbies either). However, the way you wrote this post, it strucks me that maybe you have burnout, or you're depressed - as if you reach out to your passions not mainly because you like them, but because those ne…

> but please think about it first

This is not an adequate advice for somebody who has a family to support.

I'd argue that for the most of us, once we go beyond 18-19 years old we can no longer afford to "think about it first" all the way to retirement age.

So I am really not sure what actionable point you're making here. "Find a better job", maybe? Yeah, a lot of us are trying that. I guess it's filter bubbles thing because I keep being contacted by HR agencies and companies that I want nothing to do with.

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

#80

Post by cik »

killtimeatwork wrote: post #61
tupac_speedrap wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the Scrum Master suggestion, my Scrum Master pretty much just creates meeting invites for 40 hours a week. We have a lot of contracts where we have Scrum Masters just because we do Agile, usually the non-technical types do it. The irony is that Scrum Masters are supposed to not make the team reliant on them but by having a dedicated role for it of course the dev team will make the Scrum Master do menial…

> I agree with the Scrum Master suggestion, my Scrum Master pretty much just creates meeting invites for 40 hours a week. Same here! Scrum masters are secretaries on managers' salaries. They're the true winners of the corporate game.

I think they get a bad rap. Good scrum masters are worth their weight in gold at scale. The solve all inter-team comms, the bat away distractions, and they generally find the answers, or the people with the answers and get them solved and batted out.

Bad scrum masters take up space with reporting meetings that aren't reporting - but who are we kidding. I've been privileged to work with both.

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