“Choose a job you love, and you will not have to work a day in your life” - Confucius
Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
711–720 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#712Earlier 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…
To what end? There is no award for Longest Suffering Person, just a life of wasted opportunities.
The repercussions and coping mechanisms are likely to only get more destructive the longer you put off dealing with misery. May you find your bliss, internet stranger.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#713I love this question for its honesty. Frankly if I had a job I just needed technical competence on without much thought, I'd probably hire you. Our 1-on-1's would be brief and probably just be you demoing whatever hobby it is you alluded to. As long as you can crank out some decent code, I don't see a reason why a person who needs some quality work done shouldn't at least give your desired arrangement a chance. Unfor…
I may be naive but why would you hire someone who repeatedly says "I don't care". I have no problem hiring someone who just wants to get their shit done and get the f out and if that means, they only work 2 hours, so be it as long as expectations are clear BUT they still have to care when they are working those 2 hours. May be I am too simplistic but when someone tells me "I don't care", I generally won't hire them r…
Because if the company sucks, which most companies do, then probably almost no-one there actually cares except people who have a larger-than-salary financial investment in the company, people who have been there long enough that the company is part of their identity and social group, and people who drank the kool-aid of company propaganda. People who do not fall into a group such as one of the above but who nonetheless tell you that they care are quite likely just lying to you. The person who says that he doesn't care is at least being honest.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#714I might suggest a slightly different approach. “Early Retirement Extreme” proposes that if you save 80% of your income in a few broad index funds (search bogglehead), learn to live on the 20%, then you can get to where you are financially independent and retire in 5 years. I can’t say I’m personally there yet, but it sounds like you are more motivated and maybe less obligations. Get cheap ass housing, eat cheap, bike…
This means I will have to live the rest of my life on the 20% budget, doesn't it?
You can also do some consulting projects here and there to get a big boost for that year. I'm living in a expensive place and have kids so it's not really doable for at least some years for me
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#715Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm the guy with the picture that's on puzzle box, rather than having to place each puzzle piece. This is such a great phrase! It so succinctly captures a situation I think we've all observed many times, but I've always struggled to encode it in words. > I've tried really hard to make myself obsolete and do something else, but it has backfired spectacularly. How has this backfired, I'm curious? I'm imagining that t…
> How has this backfired, I'm curious? .. > I'm imagining that the future-you's fail to seamlessly slot-in, and management types don't have an appetite for broken eggs on the way to an omelette, when they already have an omelette in you? No, not that way - I took about 9 months off in the last 4 years, which has forced a replacement of my past self. But there are still problems which are "new". So in a manner of spea…
> Instead of being obsolete, I'm a SPOF higher up the problem complexity.
This seems somewhat inevitable for "high performers". The only way round it I'm aware of is to hitch your wagon to an SPOF further up the chain.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#716Step 1 - Get a remote contracting job where you are the sole engineer on a specific part of the product, like a mobile app or web service.
Step 2 - Work real hard on building a large undocumented code base. Get a reputation for speed and responsiveness.
Step 3 - Gradually do less and less while billing the same hours. Truthfully tell them that the code base has gotten so complex changes take a lot longer. Rely on your previous reputation to keep them comfortable with that.
Your client will likely accept all this at face value. Even if they get frustrated, no one will want to take on your large mass of undocumented code.
You can probably milk this as long as the product remains funded. The major risks are product cancellation or worse, high product success that leads them to want to invest more into development. Barring those two unlikely events you likely have years of coasting ahead of you.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#717Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the take-away here, which I've also experienced, is to get an IT job in an industry that does not appreciate IT - find a position that seems to involve a TON of manual work - automate all of it - and DO NOT TELL anyone that you have automated those activities. If you are working from home, you could conceivably do this for multiple jobs (in theory, ethical considerations aside).
> find a position that seems to involve a TON of manual work - automate all of it - and DO NOT TELL anyone This reminds me the article "Now That's What I Call a Hacker" [1], where a guy left behind his automation scripts when switched companies, which revealed some extreme scripts, like: > hangover.sh - another cron-job that is set to specific dates. Sends automated emails like "not feeling well/gonna work from home"…
> hangover.sh
I almost created this myself some time ago, although not specifically for hangovers. I was envisioning a sort of dead man's switch, where if I didn't check in before a certain time it would send an SMS to my manager calling in sick.
The main reason I didn't, was that I figured I was more likely to forget to check in (and be forced to use a sick day when I didn't "need" one) than be incapable of waking up, making the call on if I was in a workable state, and sending the SMS by myself.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#718This 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…
My job allows me to go back stage at Glastonbury and track-side visits at the Olympics, front seat views of royal weddings, orchestral pit on last night of the proms, and I have a fairly sedantry job of mostly pushing buttons. Colleagues have spent days in jungles building bridges to drive cars over them, have got to know people living in random villages from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and share in their culture, have m…
What are ‘the proms’? And why would anyone want to sit through royal weddings
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#719I would look into acquiring a service on sites like microacquire.com that generates monthly income for you. There are a few listed there that requires little to no work. Sometimes it's just 3 to 6 hours of replying to customers questions.
Of course, it doesn't come free, you have to pay for the service. But this guarantee little involvement with the product, fully remote, no boss plus you can do whatever you want the rest of the time.
Re: Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
#720Earlier 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 need to change something. Other people have better advice, or at least specifics due to personal experience. But I can see that you are living in resentment and hell. There is no way your relationship with your wife is healthy. You've got a kid right? That child is watching you two and learning what it means to be in a relationship. They pick up on stuff left unsaid, you aren't hiding anything successfully (if you are indeed trying to hide these feelings).
Would you want your child to grow up to feel the way you do now? You're giving them the lesson plan right now.