January 2, 2026
Minimum effort, maximum drama
Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
HN melts down over the 'least work' job: gov gigs, sleepy companies, and a 'soul corrosion' warning
TLDR: An HN user asked which tech jobs require the least work, sparking tips and warnings. Suggestions ranged from government and sleepy legacy firms to part-time and “agile theater,” while veterans warned coasting can corrode the soul—turning a simple ask into a debate about burnout, meaning, and work today.
An Ask HN post asked the internet’s spiciest question: which tech job lets you do the least real work? Cue chaos. In the thread, folks split into camps fast. The “cozy crowd” swore by state schools and local government—strict 9–5, no overtime, and bureaucratic molasses that slows everything to a crawl. Others whispered about small, 15-year-old companies in old-school industries where drama goes to die. One veteran even pitched low-key embedded work building simple devices: satisfying engineering, low stress, then home by dinner.
Then came the pushback. Seasoned voices warned that chasing nothingness is a trap. One commenter called it “corrosive to the soul,” the kind of quiet quitting that eventually quits you. Another urged: if you love tech, keep it as a hobby and change careers rather than cheapen your passion.
And the memes? Plenty. “Part-time is the keyword,” one quipped—plus a snarky list of “bullshit jobs” like agile coach and scrum master. A wild joker even floated illegal side hustles (met with a collective eye-roll). Despite the OP invoking AI—large language models and coding bots—the consensus was that robots didn’t suddenly invent easy street. If you want low effort, it’s still about low-glamour environments, not magic LLMs. Drama level: high. Solutions: decidedly human.
Key Points
- •An Ask HN poster seeks tech roles with minimal workload, updating a 2021 question given new technologies like LLMs and coding agents.
- •They prefer fully remote, task-focused work, and accept lower pay to reduce workload and disengage from product attachment.
- •The poster expresses dissatisfaction with a perceived hyper-capitalistic environment and intense competition in a populous country.
- •They believe indie hacking or side projects could change their prospects but view it as uncertain for now.
- •They suggest niche roles (e.g., plugins/extensions for CRM/CMS) may fit their aims and clarify they still enjoy tech but want stronger work-life separation.