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10x is a strange label. I don't think that 10 times the efficiency of an average engineer is achievable consistently anyway. Programming depends on so many extr

10x is a strange label. I don't think that 10 times the efficiency of an average engineer is achievable consistently anyway. Programming depends on so many extrinsic factors like the environment you're working in, the product you're working on and the people you're working with. Effective communication probably is the single most important aspect of successful software development. Thinking of yourself as someone who is 10 times better than others likely doesn't help in that respect. That said, there are certainly engineers who particularly excel at working on legacy code bases. Refactoring and modernising an existing codebase poses an interesting challenge and it provides actual business value. Anyone can start a new greenfield application. Working on a legacy codebase takes at least a bit of courage and a deep understanding of the business involved. People often seem to forget that a supposedly shitty but working codebase for the most part probably didn't become that way because its original developers were just stupid but because the business requirements are inherently complex and contain a lot of edge cases. By decrying legacy code you might throw out years or even decades of expert knowledge about the business.

gregjor 10y ago
Very true. In many businesses their software systems are the only coherent and (mostly) consistent description of business processes. There may not be any documentation and often no single person in the company knows how everything works. Customers will tell you how they'd like things to work -- green fields projects give them a chance to dream and try to fix everything -- but whatever code they have tells you how things actually work. Ignore that at your peril. I don't care how 10X someone thinks they are. No one can walk into a business, have a one hour meeting glancing at some screens, click through some code ("Oh wow. Shitty. This is terrible.") and learn even a tiny bit of how things actually work. Yet I see proposals for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars based on that kind of shallow analysis, and a customer high on the promise of seeing their dreams realized in what will be the first perfect software development project in history. You're exactly right, "Anyone can start a new greenfield application. Working on a legacy codebase takes at least a bit of courage and a deep understanding of the business involved."

gregjor 10y ago

Very true. In many businesses their software systems are the only coherent and (mostly) consistent description of business processes. There may not be any documentation and often no single person in the company knows how everything works. Customers will tell you how they'd like things to work -- green fields projects give them a chance to dream and try to fix everything -- but whatever code they have tells you how things actually work. Ignore that at your peril. I don't care how 10X someone thinks they are. No one can walk into a business, have a one hour meeting glancing at some screens, click through some code ("Oh wow. Shitty. This is terrible.") and learn even a tiny bit of how things actually work. Yet I see proposals for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars based on that kind of shallow analysis, and a customer high on the promise of seeing their dreams realized in what will be the first perfect software development project in history. You're exactly right, "Anyone can start a new greenfield application. Working on a legacy codebase takes at least a bit of courage and a deep understanding of the business involved."