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To the original poster, I'm sorry if I misread your question by suggesting more places to look for software work. I see that you wrote that you are "reasonably sure that I'm not looking for software related ideas" which I interpreted as that you are not trying to solicit ideas for your own startup or something. Perhaps indicative that I am too much in the bubble myself!

If you're looking for completely non-computerized ideas, I can stay that I help run a small farming business in my spare time and would strongly suggest sticking to computers.

grow your own food, work remotely, have no debts.

You don't have contact information for your account, and the PHP install is broken for your website. Do you have a way people can contact you?

Sorry, I moved the farm and forgot to move the web hosting with it!

Updated email and web link in profile.

sent an email - the email bounced.

>and would strongly suggest sticking to computers.

I would agree with this. Almost any core non-software business will have some software related work, if the volumes are high enough.

>It might seem that if you don't take a crash course in machine learning and blockchain, that you'll be unemployable in a few years-- but in the past couple years I've personally seen dozens of business problems that could be solved by a decent programmer, and companies willing to pay for it, if only they had a way to connect. The problems just aren't where most people think the jobs are. Small manufacturing plants with funky regulatory requirements, construction companies, sausage factories. Not sexy, not glamorous. Just work that needs to be done.

I think you have hit upon one of the major problems in the industry. They don't seem to find the 'right' fit. But why are they being so damn picky ? Can any decent programmer not learn the new stuff?

Anecdote time: I'm see recruiters ask for Java 8 experience and presumably I'm not considered because I do not have experience in Java 8. Is Java 8 impossible to learn for someone who has spent a fair amount of time developing in the previous versions of Java? Now if Java 8 was the only missing skill I would have considered learning it ( In fact I sort of skimmed through it and have more than a fair idea of what it is) but the whole game it does not end up with one new buzzword, there are atleast 10 others. noone can possibly learn up all topics that the requirements allude to.

I expect the more "ordinary" jobs are with companies that don't hire tech recruiters either?

If so, the recruiters are giving you a biased idea of the market.

Well, the places I'm thinking of don't know the difference between Java 8, COBOL-85, and an Excel macro. They don't have Java problems, they have business problems. They aren't hiring Java jockeys, they're hiring someone who can help integrate their new modern ERP system with their aging assembly lines (which might require Java, but they don't know it!), for example- if not to personally code this stuff, to help implement such systems. They don't care what programming language you use, they just need to get the sausage made. These jobs are often found outside the purview of the "tech industry." You're going to find them by networking with the people in/around these other verticals. And there are many of these industries which have not yet been "disrupted."

Perhaps not a great thing to admit but I was under the impression that if its something you can fake-it-till-you-make-it you just say "yeah, I can do that"

If you are an experienced programmer who is confident on adapting to whatever, hustle your way through it.

Add the stuff they want to see to your existing resume. It's not complicated. It doesn't mean removing that C/C++ project you worked on for 5 years. It just means saying it was a C/C++/Java project. The hiring process is easy to hack once you start doing this. But you have to prep for the Java stuff.

This is what the Indian Bodyshopers have been doing for 15 years now. Please remember non of them started out as Java devs. They started out as "Y2K experts". And when that requirement evaporated they invented the concept of fudged resumes tailored to the requirements.

That's who you are competing with, if it is a run off the mill software job.

> Small manufacturing plants with funky regulatory requirements, construction companies, sausage factories.

There are lots of all of the above where I live (rural northeast). The problem is that nobody I've spoken to is willing to pay for the solutions to those problems, not when they can hire somebody at minimum wage to sort of solve the problem in a halfass manner. It gets them most of the way there and it's more cost effective.

It's always been tough to show small biz that IT doesn't need to be a cost center. The business needs to be at a certain maturity level to see that with the right investment they can actually use the computers to save or make them money! Without someone to show you, it's easy to forget that all this computing power is good for more than just sending email and creating documents.

Which business problems exactly? Can you be more specific?