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

Posted by johnathandos 12/22/2025

This question generated some very interesting discussions in another online community I’m in. I would likely pursue a career in occupational therapy or speech-language pathology. I would love to do work that directly benefits the lives of others and to spend more time interacting with people from all walks.

62 points | 141 commentspage 2

HardwareLust 12/22/2025|

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.

GenerWork 12/22/2025|

Interesting, why do you regret it?

mmh0000 12/22/2025|||

I assume:

Why programmers like cooking: You peel the carrot, you chop the carrot, you put the carrot in the stew. You don’t suddenly find out that your peeler is several versions behind and they dropped support for carrots in 4.3

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/agv5ol/why...

an0malous 12/22/2025||

and the CEO is now mandating everyone use Slam Chops and is expecting food to take half as long to make thanks to their ingenious idea

HardwareLust 12/22/2025||

You guys are not wrong.

HardwareLust 12/22/2025|||

For many reasons, some of them I'm sure fall into the "grass is greener" category, but tech just hasn't been very satisfying. Sure, it pays the bills and parts of it I do find interesting, but it just pales compared to how satisfying it feels to cook and serve people good food.

pepperball 12/23/2025||

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.

pcthrowaway 12/22/2025||

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™.

scottyah 12/22/2025||

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.

R_D_Olivaw 12/23/2025|

I really like your ideas and send you support energy if you ever want to pursue these.

I also have ideas for creating such spaces and just the other day I fantasized about a building I saw rent.

Fwiw, if you earn USD, the "developing world" also needs these spaces and it's significantly cheaper to try and take a chance at some of these spaces.

scottyah 12/23/2025||

True, I think these things are hard because they don't scale easy. You really need some passionate "boots on the ground" for it to work, you can't just send money over and have it work out most of the time. Finding the people who could run it well, and convincing them to do it is the hard part. These types of people are usually also not the best when "bad" people come around to bend the purpose to their desires.

It is my dream to do some of it in the developing world too, if I were to visit someplace often to help out more. A church I used to attend was big on surfing and would take trips to a small town in Mexico. They build an orphanage, some living spaces for single mothers, drastically improved some schools amongst other things and I think that was an awesome way to do charity. There were a couple run-ins with smalltime cartel-ish activity (as they saw it as a power grab) but because everything was from church to church, most donations came in the form of infrastructure and supplies (no money to take), and the pastor was a bit crazy (he visits prisons often and can deal with the thug mindset) they allowed it continue.

gigatexal 12/22/2025||

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.

vldszn 12/22/2025||

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.

vldszn 12/22/2025|

btw, I worked as a cook for a bit after school before transitioning into tech =)

Fire-Dragon-DoL 12/22/2025||

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.

rickydroll 12/22/2025||

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.

bpt3 12/22/2025||

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.

disantlor 12/22/2025|

im with you, im completely over digital at this point

bpt3 12/22/2025||

I'm not at all, but if I had to leave it behind I'd just keep building offline exclusively instead of doing both.

ajma 12/22/2025|

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

ProllyInfamous 12/22/2025|

As a med-school dropout, in his early 40s (left medicine two decades ago), I cannot even imagine having enough energy to even apply for medical school. At least in the United Hates of America, this is my jaded perspective.

I became an electrician, instead, with stints IBEW and self-employed residential. Lots of money-making opportunities, but lots of unlicensed competition from handymen that "know just enough to be dangerous" — most customers only care if the light turns on, not that it's long-term safe.

bespokedevelopr 12/23/2025||

Are you self-employed now? Why stick with residential repair work instead of trying commercial or new construction?

ProllyInfamous 12/23/2025||

I'm actually attempting to get into officework, somewhere. I can't do another twenty years of physical construction, whether in houses or factories.

>Are you self-employed now?

Yes, but I choose not to work regularly.

Fortunately, I have enough savings to not be too worried — presuming the economy picks up within the next few years (I can outlast this presidency, doing nothing).

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