Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#1

Post by Madmallard » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 6:52 AM UTC

The amount of opportunities I've found doing independent contracting for people in the last year or two has went from easily being able to find one or two leads a week to none at all for several months.

It seems with AI people are just not willing to hire devs for their pet projects anymore?

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#2

Post by jeansilga » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 8:02 AM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#3

Post by codingdave » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 10:23 AM UTC

Legacy tech work. I get almost no calls for modern dev stacks, but I'm kept as busy fixing and modernizing legacy apps on legacy stacks, and helping to get their data moved to a modern environment.

I'm not drowning in calls or anything - but they come in often enough to keep me working.

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#4

Post by unified101 » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 10:51 AM UTC

Industry shift worth noting seems to be "If AI can do it, I don't need you". So all work available is - I can't get AI to do this. Help me do it.

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#5

Post by tmpsvc2695f5 » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 12:54 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#6

Post by andrevalleee » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 7:41 PM UTC

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#7

Post by gtirloni » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 9:38 PM UTC

Fixing vibe coded projects? Arguably requires more knowledge than building the usual CRUD app.

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#8

Post by gtirloni » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

codingdave wrote: post #3

Legacy tech work. I get almost no calls for modern dev stacks, but I'm kept as busy fixing and modernizing legacy apps on legacy stacks, and helping to get their data moved to a modern environment. I'm not drowning in calls or anything - but they come in often enough to keep me working.

You could say not-well-disciplined vibe-coded projects are in the same bucket as legacy apps from day 1, right?

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#9

Post by kypro » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 11:00 PM UTC

> It seems with AI people are just not willing to hire devs for their pet projects anymore?

Not willing? Genuinely why would I?

A dev is going to cost more, work slower and be less likely to give me exactly what I ask for.

I don't mean to be blunt, but you need to look for something else to do imo. This isn't 2016.

Re: Ask HN: What are independent software contractors doing now?

#10

Post by Madmallard » Wed, Aug 19, 2026, 11:58 PM UTC

kypro wrote: post #9

> It seems with AI people are just not willing to hire devs for their pet projects anymore? Not willing? Genuinely why would I? A dev is going to cost more, work slower and be less likely to give me exactly what I ask for. I don't mean to be blunt, but you need to look for something else to do imo. This isn't 2016.

Why would a dev be less likely to give you exactly what you ask for lmao

that's completely wrong