There are plenty of 10x or more effects. Anything with a binary outcome can be considered as such. If you measure a person's productivity along those lines, you

There are plenty of 10x or more effects. Anything with a binary outcome can be considered as such. If you measure a person's productivity along those lines, you will get 10x or more output. Also, this characteristic isn't restricted to programming. Furthermore, it is probable that someone can be -10X. Probable examples of 10x, Steve Wozniak for Apple, John Carmack back in the day, Dennis Ritchie, Tim Berners-Lee, Jeff Dean. If you aren't getting 10X output, it's possible that the problem or situation you have placed the person limits them to less than 10X. I do agree that there are far more people who claim to be 10X than that there actually are and that many come with costs. Also it is simplistic to claim a person is 10x. A more accurate measure is seeing a 10x effect. Writing key software that saves a company or gets a company bought is a 10x effect. I've seen that happen several times.