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It is not the developer that is 10X. It is the environment they work in that is an enabler of 10X productivity. If that environment is also relatively stable, a

It is not the developer that is 10X. It is the environment they work in that is an enabler of 10X productivity. If that environment is also relatively stable, a smart developer can learn all the levers that the environment/company provides to them, and start achieving hyper productivity. But move that developer to a different company and they could be a dud. Even just an increase in the instability of the environment can thwart hyper productivity. The focus here is on entirely the wrong thing. It is the development environment provided by the company that enables above average developers to surge into hyper productivity. Good programming practices. Competently prepared requirements. A collegial atmosphere that encourages frank and open communication between departments. Searching for 10X developers is like looking for a silver bullet. Silver bullets do exist in the real world but ask a shooter whether they provide results any better than the common kind of ammo. Mythical stories can be fun but in the real world we have real work to to, real problems to solve, and while you can find shortcuts generally you don't find them by looking from them. But dive into the messy chaos of creating order out of nothing, and from time to time you will come across real honest to goodness shortcut opportunities that may provide up to a 10X increase in productivity. Use them if you can, but don't waste a lot of energy in chasing them. Also, the idea of a 10X rocket scientist is rather glamourous. But the fact is that there are real opportunities for productivity improvements that are in the boring details, slogging through improvements in processes, making small incremental improvements continuously and consistently. There is more to learn from refactoring than from chasing clouds.

Nomentatus 9y ago
Some people have read far more than ten times as many math and programming books than others, and spent far more than ten times as much time making sure they thoroughly understand what they've read; and then gone on to tackle ten times as many hairy projects on the edge than others because it was fun for them. True, an environment can encourage the laggards to catch up or fire 'em if they have no interest in improving their skills and knowledge; but it can't wave a wand and create the skills. I would also note that there are tenX (plus) refactorers who can freely cut large amounts of code from large projects without risk, too. If you started tackling mathematical puzzles when you were eight, and programming a couple years later you're a different species than someone who switched majors to computing in third year for financial reasons; the early starter's brain is actually physically different (for instance some of your visual cortex and memory will now likely be devoted to math and logic instead of geography, this has been measured in chess players.) Same with a concert pianist vs someone who started playing the piano at age 20. Sure, the environment of the concert hall or practice hall matters - just not nearly that much. I agree we do need to spend more time paying off boring technical debt, too; though that's not getting much more popular. I don't want to leave the wrong impression. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing a very conscientious job of coding and recoding that a whole lot of others could also do, just with a better ethic and constant attention to detail - we need many more such coders too, and I honor them very much.

Nomentatus 9y ago

Some people have read far more than ten times as many math and programming books than others, and spent far more than ten times as much time making sure they thoroughly understand what they've read; and then gone on to tackle ten times as many hairy projects on the edge than others because it was fun for them. True, an environment can encourage the laggards to catch up or fire 'em if they have no interest in improving their skills and knowledge; but it can't wave a wand and create the skills. I would also note that there are tenX (plus) refactorers who can freely cut large amounts of code from large projects without risk, too. If you started tackling mathematical puzzles when you were eight, and programming a couple years later you're a different species than someone who switched majors to computing in third year for financial reasons; the early starter's brain is actually physically different (for instance some of your visual cortex and memory will now likely be devoted to math and logic instead of geography, this has been measured in chess players.) Same with a concert pianist vs someone who started playing the piano at age 20. Sure, the environment of the concert hall or practice hall matters - just not nearly that much. I agree we do need to spend more time paying off boring technical debt, too; though that's not getting much more popular. I don't want to leave the wrong impression. There's absolutely nothing wrong with doing a very conscientious job of coding and recoding that a whole lot of others could also do, just with a better ethic and constant attention to detail - we need many more such coders too, and I honor them very much.