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To be a 10x engineer, you don't have to be 10x smarter. There are a lot of ways to get to an overall multiplier of 10x. You can be 2x smarter and 2x more expe

To be a 10x engineer, you don't have to be 10x smarter. There are a lot of ways to get to an overall multiplier of 10x. You can be 2x smarter and 2x more experienced and have 2x better research skills and 1.25x better administrative skills/support (time management, office layout, etc.) with the net result of 10x effectiveness. You can be 12.2% better in 20 different but mutually-reinforcing skill areas. Or, thought of a different way, an ordinary engineer might solve 90 problems easily but get bottlenecked on 10 challenges. You can approach 10x by solving 99 problems easily and only bottlenecking on one. Being an outlier isn't necessarily a matter of one big advantage, but can be about combining a lot of small advantages.

overgard 11y ago
Yeah, I entirely agree. I think sports are a good example of this (because in most sports, it's much easier to measure performance than in programming). LeBron James, for instance (arguably the greatest basketball player in the world), isn't really 2x better at anything compared to other top basketball players. He can't run twice as fast or jump twice as high. He's just slightly better at everything. Small things can stack to a large degree. Like, how many programmers know the important keyboard shortcuts in their development environment? Obviously it doesn't take a genius to learn keyboard shortcuts, but shaving 5 seconds off operations here and there can have a huge effect when you start thinking about how that multiplies in timescales of weeks or months. (Not that knowing keyboard shortcuts makes you a great developer, just saying, seemingly minor advantages can be huge multipliers)
- petra 11y ago
  I think the keyboard example hints for something bigger. Yes it's a small example.But it may allow you to stay in the flow(and optimal focus) better than someone who'se looking around menus. And the effect is probably non-linear to effort. And it accumulates. Now every month you get to learn more/better than the other guy. So yes, similarly minor things can be huge multipliers , like you say.

overgard 11y ago

Yeah, I entirely agree. I think sports are a good example of this (because in most sports, it's much easier to measure performance than in programming). LeBron James, for instance (arguably the greatest basketball player in the world), isn't really 2x better at anything compared to other top basketball players. He can't run twice as fast or jump twice as high. He's just slightly better at everything. Small things can stack to a large degree. Like, how many programmers know the important keyboard shortcuts in their development environment? Obviously it doesn't take a genius to learn keyboard shortcuts, but shaving 5 seconds off operations here and there can have a huge effect when you start thinking about how that multiplies in timescales of weeks or months. (Not that knowing keyboard shortcuts makes you a great developer, just saying, seemingly minor advantages can be huge multipliers)

petra 11y ago
I think the keyboard example hints for something bigger. Yes it's a small example.But it may allow you to stay in the flow(and optimal focus) better than someone who'se looking around menus. And the effect is probably non-linear to effort. And it accumulates. Now every month you get to learn more/better than the other guy. So yes, similarly minor things can be huge multipliers , like you say.