Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?

I imagine my answer will be a bit unique - I'm in tech because I like computers and I'm good at working with them, but I feel a strong conviction that if I'd had my way, I would've gone into some sort of sex work, likely either porn or pro-domme work. There was an article posted here[0] a few years ago by an escort reflecting on her experiences, and the conclusion, which spoke to the human element of the work, deeply resonated with me - in fact, I recently left the IC track for a manager role because I'm realizing how meaningful I find work that exercises empathy to be.

Human sexuality is the one thing in this world that's more interesting to me than computers, and while I'm grateful for my stable job and career that allow me to explore it as a hobby, I'm infinitely curious about what that other life would have looked like.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28924751

Many of us have to do this job(personality quirks, ASD, etc). I remember talking to a nerd friend(Verilog/VHDL guy) 25 years ago, in the time before Google salaries when engineering wasn't a job most people desired. He shared that thought and it rang true with me. I've met many folks who I don't think would have done well outside engineering. Myself, I have a good brain for engineering but have a marked lack of common sense. I'm a jack of all trades but as that implies I'm not particularly good at anything besides systems programming or electrical engineering.

Back in college('97) a guy offered me a job as an elevator repair tech. I almost dropped out since the money was better than what I'd make as an engineer($50/hr plus OT). My first engineering job, doing embedded SW and some EE work for a large consumer electronics company was $37.5k/yr.

I'd do what I do now: computer science instructor and author. :)

My wife is an SLP at a hospital and she loves it. I couldn't handle the more medical parts, but I can see crossover there with assessment and problem-solving. She geeks out on it.

Both of us are definitely interested in work that benefits lives. (For me, a lot of that is driven by my desire to repent for working in online advertising for so many years.) If that's something that matters to you, and it sounds like it is, I definitely recommend pushing for that. But think outside the box, too--there are a lot of places in tech that benefit people and provide interaction.

Finally, watch out for the student loan-to-income ratio for things like SLP. Make sure you're balancing that.

If money was no issue, I'd go into carpentry. I find building things out of wood to be immensely satisfying. Everything from the smell of the wood, the differences by wood type, the naturally beautiful look it has, and the usability/UX of the final product tickle me in ways that I haven't experienced before. I've gotten very close with personal software projects, but the physicality of the wood is something software has never been able to replicate.

I'm not 'in tech', but I am a technology librarian and a large part of my job is teaching senior citizens how to use their devices. I don't make a ton of money, but I get a lot of social capital in my community, as well as a bunch of fresh baked goods this time of year.

Baker. Very phisical job, night hours, but it's creative and you really make something with your hands. Wonderful.

I like programming so I'd probably just keep doing that.

If I didn't have to work in order to live I'd probably spend more time sailing, playing music, and being with my family.

But I'd still be programming. The kind of programming I'd do would be focused on my interests rather than the interests of businesses and shareholders that employ me though.

Depending on my finances, I'd probably paint for a little bit. When I say paint, I mean paint buildings, not paint canvas or anything like that. Did this for a few years in college and it was satisfying to actually see physical proof of your work. Also, the only way you ever took you work home with you was if you got paint on yourself.

Do you mean "money is not an issue, what else would you do" or "AI has automated tech, what other job would you pick now" or "had you made different life choices 20 years ago..."?

Former tech worker here. I don’t know yet, and don’t have many skills outside of computer jockey. Can be friendly for short periods but not a people person. What do y’all suggest?

I'd be a cook/chef, which is what I decided on in HS, but I let everyone talk me into tech, which I regret in hindsight.

Realistically, probably nothing great.

I enjoyed programming and computers as a hobby in high school, but had eventually decided it was not something I’d like to do as a career.

But my initial plans after high school fell through and I found myself needing to make a living. Naturally I reached for a software career, but I do hate it as much as I expected.

I didn’t really have anything else going for me skill wise. The idea of spending four more years in school didn’t appeal to me as a teenager (though I regret this greatly). I didn’t attend a community college for a few months, but dropped out as it felt like a waste of time and money.

So realistically, I’d probably have been stuck working unskilled near-minimum wage jobs I had been working before I started my career. Prior to that, I had a fascination with biology that competed with computer briefly. “Bioinformatics” was a word that came up often in career ideas while I was in high school, but that was such a small niche, I really had no concept at all as to what that career path would have looked like.

Nowadays, there’s many more things I’m interested in, but they’re all inaccessible as careers at this point.

Over the years, I’ve been inspired by things like RF engineering, physics, PLC programming, and even various natural sciences, but lacked the education/intelligence/cash to go back to school. Certainly for as long as I’d have to for those careers. AI will likely reduce the number of people needed in the sort of fields anyway.

I haven't had consistent or full-time work in tech in 2 years (1 year since any work, 8-9 years in tech before that)

I'm still doing software work related to activism, but I haven't been looking for paid work because the pickings are incredibly slim for work aligned with my values. I'm planning to get into rope access work in a few months.

I'm not going to stop working on software as long as I'm able to provide value beyond what AI tooling can do, but I'm not hopeful for a return to the industry when I'm so misaligned with Big Tech™.

If I had money, I'd start to set up free after-school tutoring/play areas. I'd love to open a new business of a dog park that sells coffee in the morning, and beer in the afternoon/evening. A small amount of nice workstations for people to get some work/studying done. If I never got into tech- well I was going to be a Materials Engineer, but if I were a tradesman I'd probably be an electrician because of my superiority complex, lack of craftsman-level hand-eye coordination, and I like expensive tools.

If I take the question to mean: "you still have to work but you can't work in tech, what would you do?" I had thought about this around the time of the last layoffs that we had ... and I think I'd go to a trade school to become an electrician.

BUT ... to be 100% honest there's nothing I am really any good at other than tech. I guess I could try my hand at teaching. Would that be a good enough loop hole? I could maybe teach Econ 101 at a junior college probably. It'd be a huge pay cut but it'd be better than being jobless.

I’d probably become a chef - cooking has always felt like the most natural non-tech path for me. It’s a craft and a very creative process, with immediate, tangible results.

I would probably be a NEET without partner and kids. I really like computers and it's what pulled me out of online multiplayer games. Without them,I would probably have succumbed to my high school burnout and not made any progress academically or professionally.

Nowadays, probably something in finances, I realized I could have enjoyed accounting or some work related to business finances, but this is something I learned while working, not before.

I would have had almost no choice but to work for my father in the family rigging business, given that I was the first son of a first son. There's a good chance I'd be dead or severely disabled due to my lack of awareness (ADHD) of heavy machinery moving around me. If tech wasn't an option otherwise, I think I would have chosen to become an electrician—less chance of me becoming dead than moving machinery.

Some form of building things in the physical world rather than the digital; probably working in construction since I already do it on the side.

Doctor. Still want to explore "systems" to diagnose issues and build plans for improvement.

When I was 45, I did briefly consider making the switch

Probably something blue collar like electrician, plumbing or auto repair.

One of these or a mix of - history, archaeology, and literature. But as they say, you never know.

I absolutely knew even when I left school ("school" school) that none of these would pay, so I assume your question has an implicit "if money was no concern". Because money/job was the reason I picked engineering and CS in college. While I did quite well (academically and professionally), I never loved it. Maybe I liked it here and there. Then I knew this would happen; that's the reason I was at least prudent enough to never do that CS MS (with multiple options for full scholarships in Europe around a decade ago). But not prudent enough to explore masters in many of the non-STEM fields that were there for the taking pretty much. Some of those might have paired well with this STEM bachelors in some way or the other.

I fully expected to age out of tech by the time I hit 40 (just hit 49, still in tech) -- so I do flight instruction, aircraft inspections and relocation. It's tech money but not tech consistency, and has basically pivoted my favorite hobby and turned it into a job, which has its own challenges.

I'm still building it out. Going for my Repair Station license next year and hoping to add pitot-static and transponder calibration to my services menu. I wrench on my own plane, but the liability exposure is insane, so I won't sign work for others.

It's really odd, but I think when I disclose this to my tech masters, there is something of a novelty value, and they appreciate that I can sling code... and also other things. That old "well rounded" trope I guess.

I’ve made some interesting things in the past few years, in particular singing Tesla coils and digitally-controlled plasma tube lights. Was thinking about making bespoke musical instruments based on some of these learnings.

Of particular interest was some interesting types of feedback that came from the Tesla coils. Basically we modulated the frequency we drove the coils to produce sound, but the coils would interfere with one another because that’s how electromagnetism works. We had to tune them to different resonant frequencies to play sound. But the interference itself could sound unique and eerie, sometimes like an old-timey radio. It’s similar in principle to a theremin but a very different sound.

Or I could just get a soul sucking job and do this in early retirement. Shrug.

Before I got my degree I was a machinist/ millwright and doing various things in between. Took a break after covid to go back for a little to decompress from tech but inevitably came back to programming.

Love the work but hate the pay and toll it took on my body.

Carpentry is fun too but metal is better.

All the jobs I rather be doing are antiquated. Furniture maker but it’s not a viable job anymore either. A machinist, tool-die maker. Or mechanic maybe. I have always thought that mechanics are just debugging a very specific architecture. None of these make money though.

Do I need to make money? If the answer is no, then I would do something physical and mindless like stocking shelves or landscaping.

If the answer is yes, I'll stick with software.

When I was in college I did residential landscaping in the summers, and in retrospect it was a good time.

I spent 5 years making gears, mostly bevel gears. If you see a Marvel 18" bandsaw made between 2015 and 2020, I probably cut the teeth on the band wheel and its pinion that drives it.

Some of the gears I helped make will still be in use in a century. I find great comfort in that for some reason. The job was rewarding, and interesting, but the pay and commute really sucked.

As for helping others, there were a handful of us in the job shop before it was bought by a bigger machine shop. It's a fairly solitary job.

I think I would enjoy building houses, or solar-battery-electrical installations. I like infrastructure (my favorite games include Factorio) and being able do that in the real world sounds both useful and enjoyable/satisfying.

I don't really know what I would do. I'll probably find some other jobs that I don't need to talk to other people very often, but there are not many of these. I don't care too much about salary because I can always scale back to backbone lifestyle.

Maybe a janitor/security job or a bus driver job suits me well. Neither requires a huge amount of training, and neither requires a lot of brain activity so I can preserve my brain cells for hobby programming. Both have a non-trivial number of job openings too, especially for janitors/securities.

This thought experiment insinuates that not working in tech means infinite money or resources, which I realize is not the spirit of the question, but in the event that funding is of no consequence...

I would build sound systems. Huge ones, bigger than what's in my garage. Bone-shaking, yet clear as the pure blue sky

I would open a video store / computer lab / hangout for skaters, nerds and misfits

I would curate a library, with a point of view -- the most interesting ones are where the signal has been extricated from the noise and somebody wants you to see the world how they see the world

I would make a lot of things, physical and digital -- from 3D prints to woodworking to PCBs to strange websites and curious software

I would get a giant pizza oven and a huge cauldron and fuck around making pies and stews LOL

I would just do cool shit with my friends!

I basically do a lot of these things already in measured doses, in between begging, scraping, seeking, asking for, grabbing money; that whole pursuit is a great stick and carrot that keeps the human moving through life, but it's also kind of corrosive to the soul, and unavoidable if you want to participate in society.

Funny how when I re-read what I'm about to post (as a middle aged man), it sounds like the pipe dream of a 12 year old boy, some old loser who refuses to grow up lol

If i could start over again i would love to work as forester. I even considered working as lumberjack. I got required certificates, im legally allowed to work in the industry doing sawork (as in, felling trees, even if not private property).

I know it is an highly physical demanding and also very risky job. Now that a second child arives, obviously, life changing again, i just cant do it, i need to feed two kinds soon and these kind of jobs are not well payed.

So ill stick to doing my own firewood once a year, a couple of days outside in the woods and keep dreaming about it.

Live goes by too fast.

I'd go back to civil engineering. Building things. Good, honest work.

Binge watching Netflix and doom scrolling Insta-rcisst.

And once I had gotten over the anxiety and low self-esteem that I'd develop by engaging in these activities, probably become some kind of tech artist or simply be creativity for the sack of creating something.

No insta, no facebook, no twitter, more a reflection of what these technologies are doing to our "societies" or rather our "individualised groups of humans collectively doom-scrolling into global disaster of one kind or another".

I'm currently incubating a sick twisted fantasy to run a handbuilt bicycle wheelbuilding store. If you asked me this question 20 years ago, the answer would be music teacher.

I could have been an academic or an activist. My son reactivated in me the "making" aspect of experimental physics that had a big impact on me despite doing theory for my PhD. (My son builds buildings by day, guitars by night)

In the last two years I've become a semi-pro photographer. I guess I am also an "activist" now but approach it as personal change [1] instead of interpersonal conflict.

[1] a kind of global "daoism" that embraces all kinds of human development

I’d go into psychology research. I have some very low percentage chance mental health traits and there’s not many people studying what I have who have lived experience and are not too disabled to study it. I know I’d enjoy doing clinical work too, and often find my time not doing software is helping others and making community w those folks.

Sadly, I’m not wealthy enough to afford to reset like that, I’ll never be able to retire.

Physics, of course. Well, at least that is what I was doing before. If not that teaching. Math, physics, programming. I could teach any of that I guess

Really different questions with different answers.

If it were just for my own care-free leisure and benefit, I would probably go to school again and try some other academic path in math, physics or history. Or rekindle my CS study and do a phd - so many different interesting topics.

In the real world, as a parent with a huge mortgage? Pretty much anything. Janitorial work, insurance agent, landscaping, whatever.

I personally believe that life is better if you do what you are naturally good at versus something you're interested in. I was lucky that I am both good at and interested in tech.

The LSAT doesn't feel too difficult, especially the sections based around logical reasoning. So if I went back in time and tech somehow wasn't an option, law is probably where I'd be

If it wasn’t about the money I would be a teacher of some kind.

When I’m retired I plan to get a part-time job as an usher at a theater, arena, concert hall, or stadium.

Another good option is to get a really low-stress job at a tropical resort. I can imagine running a little stand that rents out umbrellas and chairs on a beach. Or maybe walking around the beach selling ice cream out of a cart.

The pool of tech jobs in my area was sparse, but the local employers were fully on board with the big-city "use them for a while and toss them out" system. So when times were good in IT, I bought a machine shop, and in between times of lucrative IT employment, I did short-run metalworking and engine rebuilding.

Probably Math and science teacher/professor.

I also could end up being happy in condensed matter physics, astrophysics, robotics, materials science, nano tech, optics, or RF. Some combination of engineering and science.

I love teaching and building things to help people. So there are a bunch of areas that would fit the bill here. I gravitate towards any tech that feels like magic.

Tech pervades all things. These days in particular it's impossible to do anything too well without advice from AI.

I could and I do daytrade options, which however is more tech than tech itself, whether by hand or by a bot.

I would however like to be a consulting speaker, but the research for it can't really be done without a steady and heavy dose of tech.

I run a website that helps people settle in Berlin. It's been my full-time job for a few years now, although AI is slowly killing websites like mine now.

https://nicolasbouliane.com/projects/all-about-berlin

My background is in computer science and philosophy. But philosophy was always about pure interest and not career prospect.

If I had to pivot in 2025, I’d probably go for psychology. I’m interested in that, I enjoy the idea of more directly helping people and have myself been tremendously helped by psychologists the past years.

I'd try and figure out how to make a living converting older, everyday cars/trucks to EVs. Restomod I guess; but not just classic sports cars and big trucks (though I love those too). I think a 1989 Mazda Protege deserves a new life as an affordable commuter car. Tape deck and all.

I was a copy editor long ago, and pretty good at it. I have been slightly surprised to make the acquaintance of a couple of people who still do that. One said that the wages aren't great, which was my recollection. But I wouldn't mind working as an editor.

I'd probably be an electrician or fabrication (3D printing / CNC). Or does that count as tech?

CNC (and maybe some manual) Machining.

There are two ways to answer this, one for what I'd intrinsically enjoy most, and one for what could be an equally lucrative career.

For the former, a repair/handyman. Hanging shelves, assembling ikea furniture, etc.

The latter is harder to answer, but probably something within the legal profession.

Honestly want to be done working. I feel like I've spent an enormous amount of my life indoors, and there are so very few years left on the earth.

I sometimes think of being a massage artist. It's relaxing and satisfying to massage people and feel the kinks and knots loosening. However I don't have the verbal skills to smalltalk. And I don't like dealing with people either.

Probably electrical metrology. Though there are more jobs in dimensional metrology, and that's also interesting. Though I doubt the US is going to get more manufacturing if tech collapses, so that's not exactly a good backup plan.

BEACH....BUM

Medicine, ideally Oncology. I only made that realization as an adult though.

Regenerative farmer, tinkering with mycorrhizal fungi and other microbiology

I’d probably go into finance, law, or medicine. Most likely finance.

I specifically went away from it due to moral reasons but seems this society has no morals and never will. May as well just plunder the poor.

I could imagine being a car mechanic or a welder. Repairing my car is a little hobby of mine and I could imagine doing that full time, if programming work would stop paying my bills.

I'd become a neurosurgeon, always wanted to be since childhood for some reason. Maybe I drew inspiration from youtube watching those tumor removal videos.

I would farm. Probably vineyards and orchards. With big flower gardens.

If you've ever worked land, you'll know your boss is the weather and the seasons, and time.

It's good.

I would be a failed science fiction / horror writer.

I'd be a woodworker making cabinets and tables

Working in agriculture, as I have been really fascinated by growing stuff from the seed since I was a child.

Practical answer: military officer stuff

Ideal answer: go back to school and become a horticulture scientist

Art and cinema, if I can’t write code I’ll write stories instead and try to bring them to life.

Professor, writer, translator, a theologian... etc. Or maybe a sniper in the army.

Probably be into some arts fields: writing, music, design.

Airline pilot. Respected, well paid, kind of cool.

I'd run a chicken farm and a restaurant.

Fly some drones, maybe thermal image wildlife

Electrician, some sort of doctor, or chef.

Frankly I really don't know what id don't not in tech. Closest I van think of is some kind of mathematician but don't even know what those "jobs" look like. Academia might be another. But these are all tech adjacent aren't they?

- Beekeeper

- Music producer

- Video director

- Astronomer/Physicist/Biologist

I've considered switching to land surveying, machining or fabricating.

I just hate the direction the software industry has gone (and is going), and once I buy a house and get some savings I want to get out.

Audio Engineering and Production

A plumber. Very resistant to AI.

Soon we will all find it out.

If i didn't work in tech, I would work for tech.

I'm a linux user, but I hate that majority of MacOS apps/tools are Paid, and I want to change that

If money was not an issue, and I had all the time in this world, I'd start giving it all to Open-source software.

Starting with rewriting all the paid/subscription apps created for macOS.

For example, I'll create an exact replica of: - Alfred, Raycast, Bartender, BetterDisplayTool etc, but completely FOSS

Bus driver in SF or near a tech hub, so I can listen to mindless grifting and endless complaining by tech workers that would re-enforce the life decision I made.

Most likely would be dead.

Teach high school English.

Either scientist or chef

But i dont work in tech

Work in a taco shop.

Ag or musician.

Electrician

not a communist, but the communist manifesto articulated this problem very well in people end up doing work that does not matter to them because of capitalism. imagine a world, where people do that, they are passionate about and not have to worry about basic means and even some wants (entertainment, comfort living etc). a world of abundance for everyone where people just do what they are super passionate about. will AI help towards that or not is a big question.