10x engineer is a relative comparison based on the engineers around you, not a universal ranking. Most of this can be explained by managers who dont know what t

10x engineer is a relative comparison based on the engineers around you, not a universal ranking. Most of this can be explained by managers who dont know what they don't know. (Never hired or managed hundreds or thousands) I have met, hired, and worked with engineers of all stripes and tend to think this idea is just a mental way of covering that "we have a guy our company or team relies on to a high risk degree". 10x engineers are a bad sign because it means she or he probably belongs with a better crew... And someday either they'll realize that or leave for another reason, exposing our over reliance on them.