TL;DR
A Hacker News user reposted a 2021 question asking which tech roles let someone work as little as possible, citing changes from LLMs and coding agents. Commenters pushed back that truly low-effort jobs are rare, suggested alternative career moves and public-sector or part-time roles, and offered categories of work that tend to feel low-effort.
What happened
A poster on Hacker News revived a previously popular 2021 thread to ask which technology jobs would permit an 'average developer' to spend as little time working as possible. The user said they prefer fully remote roles, are willing to accept lower pay, do not want their life to revolve around their job, and noted recent advances in large language models and coding agents as potential game changers. Responses emphasized that low-effort positions are uncommon and typically fall into identifiable categories — time-based (e.g., long periods of monitoring), physical, skilled (certification-dependent), or social (people-facing) work. Several commenters recommended treating software development as a hobby if it becomes a source of dread and exploring part-time roles or public institutions like education or government, which may offer steadier hours and more predictable conditions. The thread included suggestions and cautions rather than concrete job listings.
Why it matters
- The conversation highlights growing developer interest in work–life balance and skepticism about hyper-capitalistic work cultures.
- Advances in LLMs and coding agents are prompting renewed questions about automation’s effect on job design, even if outcomes remain uncertain.
- Practical alternatives — part-time roles, public institutions, or career changes — are being considered more often than purely technical shortcuts.
- The thread underlines that perceived ‘low-effort’ roles often trade lower intensity for other costs (lower pay, monotony, certification, or social labor).
Key facts
- The post revisits a similar popular Hacker News question from 2021.
- Original poster describes themselves as an average developer seeking minimal work, preferably fully remote and willing to accept lower salary.
- OP mentioned recent developments in LLMs and coding agents as relevant to the question.
- Commenters argued that genuinely low-effort jobs are rare and typically fall into time-based, physical, skilled, or social categories.
- Advice included making programming a hobby, changing careers, seeking part-time work, or looking at public institutions (education, government).
- Several replies stressed that jobs generally require effort and that trade-offs are inevitable.
- OP speculated about niche roles (plugins, extensions, CRM/CMS maintenance) but no specific openings were identified.
What to watch next
- Whether LLMs and coding agents create truly low-effort developer roles: not confirmed in the source
- Emergence of niche maintenance or plugin roles tied to specific platforms (CRM/CMS): not confirmed in the source
- Employer adoption of part-time or predictable-schedule roles for developers: not confirmed in the source
Quick glossary
- LLM: Large language model — a machine learning system trained on large text datasets to generate or analyze human-language outputs.
- Coding agent: An automated tool or system that assists with software development tasks, potentially generating code, suggesting fixes, or automating workflows.
- CRM: Customer Relationship Management — software systems used to manage interactions with customers and store related data.
- CMS: Content Management System — a platform for creating, managing, and publishing digital content, often for websites.
- Remote work: A working arrangement where an employee performs job duties outside a traditional office, often from home or another offsite location.
Reader FAQ
Did the thread identify specific low-effort job titles?
Not confirmed in the source.
Are AI tools like LLMs presented as a clear path to low-effort work?
The OP raised LLMs and coding agents as a reason to revisit the question, but commenters did not confirm they create guaranteed low-effort roles.
Were public-sector jobs recommended?
Yes — some commenters suggested education and government roles as options for steadier hours and reasonable long-term conditions.
Is quitting software development or making it a hobby advised?
Several replies recommended making development a hobby and changing careers if the job becomes demotivating.
Same as the popular question from 2021: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26721951 I'm asking again as a lot has changed in the past few years especially w.r.t LLMs, coding agents etc. copy pasting from…
Sources
- Ask HN: What tech job would let me get away with the least real work possible?
- What jobs in tech require little programming?
- High-Paying Tech Jobs You Can Do Without Any Experience
- Top Niches in Software Development That Pay the Most …
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