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?

#741

Post by chad_strategic » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:07 PM 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…

"If you're the only person who knows something, you become a liability."

So I had that philosophy when I was in the Marine Corps, well because I wanted my Marines and myself to survive and carry out the mission.

Sharing knowledge in the business world, never. That's a great way to lose a job.

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

#742

Post by aantix » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:09 PM UTC

wayoutthere wrote: post #583

kjjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a real shame. I wish we could do something to stop this insanity. Their dogmatic approach to D&I is really scary honestly. On top of that, you are marked if you are a "cis white male". It doesn't matter if you are an immigrant. It doesn't matter if you are jewish (less than 0.003% of the global population, so one of most minority minorities), doesn't matter if you have a rich ethnic background with white skin…

Because that’s not what it’s about; it’s about having a diverse leadership that more closely resembles the makeup of our nation and communities. Cis white men make up only about 30% of our population but account for probably 80% (and that’s being generous) of positions above middle management. It’s the cultural homogeneity that’s the business problem, and that doesn’t get solved without the right optics. Most of thes…

The contention is whether you can accurately ascertain the experiences of any of the cohorts that you cite.

Each cohort literally represents millions of people (billions if including the world). This makes the cohorts meaningless.

And it's in the category of generalizations that we've been fighting. It's part of the problem, not the solution.

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

#743

Post by throwaway12504 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:11 PM UTC

jgwil2 wrote: post #690

throwaway12504 wrote: post #84

Honestly, I think this is somewhat of a crapshoot/hard to tell from the job description and the reason I say this is the job I'm currently in functions exactly how you describe but the job description/everything else from the outside gave me no clue before I actually started the job. "Ideally being done in 2 hours in the morning then chilling would be perfect" -- in fact, for me, often it's 2 hours on a Monday mornin…

2 weeks' work in 2 hours seems borderline unbelievable. Do you just radically overestimate the amount of effort every ticket will take? How do your coworkers/manager not push back? I can see accomplishing that much work in 1/2 the time, or maybe even less, but you're talking about spending 1/40 the amount of time as estimated. Many people here debate the existence of the 10x developer, and you're claiming to be a 40x…

To be clear: I'm definitely not claiming to be a 10x, 40x or 100x developer. I'm not claiming I could do the same amount of work as you or anyone else any faster than you or anyone else could.

It's more like my managers and product management radically overestimate the amount of time things take. Those are the people choosing how much work they think I should be able to accomplish each sprint and I don't do anything to dissuade them from the idea that that seems about right to me as well. I'm frequently praised by my manager and kidded by my colleagues about how "fast" I've managed to knock out my stories even when only working a few hours the first day of the sprint and submitting my PRs the day before or of the sprint ending. Those same managers/product managers work with many other engineers at my company so I don't know if everyone at my company is underachieving stealthily or what. As I said in my original post, I'm honestly as really, really confused as anyone else about what's going on, but since I'm praised in performance reviews, given a decent bonus, been 2x chosen for quarterly awards and promoted internally, etc, I mean, what should I do ? Demand more work ? Yeah, no thanks.

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

#744

Post by alsetmusic » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:12 PM UTC

swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #611

kelp wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'm in this boat right now-ish. I don't want to be the person who only knows somemthing. I'd rather delegate it and then if I get sick I know someone else can cover the work needed to get the job done. I just recently had my first junior developer assigned to me. Learning how to mentor, teach, as opposed to just getting a task done is harder than I imagined

> Learning how to mentor, teach, as opposed to just getting a task done is harder than I imagined

I've had the good fortune to inhabit a mentoring position twice in my professional career. Both have afforded me opportunities to teach new people as each business expands.

I find mentoring incredibly rewarding. But I also naturally enjoy spreading knowledge (I considered a career change to teach history at the university level, but didn't want to pursue the academic credentials). It's not just teaching the tech that's rewarding. I also enjoy sharing time management techniques, tips for writing solid documentation, and pointing out how to avoid gotchas that I've run into in my personal experience.

What I absolutely don't want is to join the ranks of management. A buddy recently moved up and he now spends almost all of his time in meetings. When he isn't in meetings, he's responding to the many people who need his attention for one thing or another. I wouldn't find that the least bit fulfilling.

This is what strikes me as tone-deaf about the grandparent comment with regard to "loving your job." I love my job because it pays well enough, I like the people I work with, and it doesn't intrude into my "real life." I hated my former employment, where ambition was a thing, because it dominated my life. It paid far better, but I was unhappy overall. What I have strikes the right balance, and that's rare enough that I treasure it.

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

#745

Post by tw04 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:13 PM 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…

>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 when you have job security.

Sounds like the VP of engineering was doing his job quite well. Set up new hires to share everything so when their salary becomes a burden you can "sadly let them go" when "necessary downsizing" occurs because they've given away the farm.

Don't get me wrong, I spend a ton of time mentoring those around me, but there's no planet on which I would give a document dump of my personal notes, ever.

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

#746

Post by kstenerud » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:17 PM UTC

toomanybeersies wrote: post #717

miklosme wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 u…

You could just make it message you first saying "Respond within 30 minutes to stop sick message from being sent"

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

#747

Post by tombert » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:23 PM UTC

an_opabinia wrote: post #595

hnarn wrote: post #415

If you want my advice, it is simply this: look for dysfunctional companies. They're easy to recognize, because they look like pretty much the opposite of those companies everybody really want to work at. Take everything you see from a website like Elastic[1] for example and invert it: - It should NOT be clear what the value proposition is. - The website should NOT adhere to modern design standards, or at least do so…

> look for dysfunctional companies This theme is common in the thread and is wildly wrong. First I recommend reading Bullshit Jobs to get some perspective on how others have fulfilled your goals. Big, rich, process-driven companies and institutions are the easiest to do the least work in for the longest time . Process is the toxin low-effort thrives on. An admin role at Google pays more and works much less than an en…

> Process is the toxin low-effort thrives on.

I'd argue it's even more sinister than that; too much process can very quickly cause engineers to burn out, and since they aren't reprimanded in any serious way for not doing much work, they can sit and feel depressed without anyone even addressing it.

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

#748

Post by mvexel » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:24 PM UTC

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…

I was searching this thread for a reference to FIRE, I see interesting parallels too.

You can take a serial (work your butt off now, enjoy life later) or parallel (OP's wish) approach to work/life, but it also does not need to be completely binary. If you can find a position that is sufficiently rewarding but not too stressful, and that allows you to save up enough that you can (semi) retire at, say, 50, that may be a great middle ground.

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

#749

Post by shireboy » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:26 PM UTC

orthoxerox wrote: post #190

shireboy wrote: post #155

I 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?

Yes, that's generally the math. You save 80% of your income while learning to structure your life to live on the 20%. These people bike everywhere, eat cheaply, and are all around frugal. If you can do that, then in 5 years you can retire and have to worry less about money. For me personally, that would mean sacrifices to my family's lives that I'm not willing to make, but I see the appeal and try to apply the concepts where I can.

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

#750

Post by the_local_host » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 6:28 PM UTC

hnarn wrote: post #415

If you want my advice, it is simply this: look for dysfunctional companies. They're easy to recognize, because they look like pretty much the opposite of those companies everybody really want to work at. Take everything you see from a website like Elastic[1] for example and invert it: - It should NOT be clear what the value proposition is. - The website should NOT adhere to modern design standards, or at least do so…

Dysfunctional companies consume effort, but they waste it. People work themselves to the point of burnout with little to show for it.

What the original poster needs is a company that is already functioning without them, and does not require any of their effort to keep going.