Ah, so 10X is just grade inflation.. If a 1X programmer is taken to be the worst or lowest quartile and not the median or competent programmer then this 10X is

Ah, so 10X is just grade inflation.. If a 1X programmer is taken to be the worst or lowest quartile and not the median or competent programmer then this 10X is pointless and misleading. This 1x programmer has no productivity whatsoever, has a negative contribution to any project they are on, damage designs and confuse meanings and doesn't even use the results of the time they consume from other programmers to improve because having copied the answer, their boss thinks they are improving and is off their back. A top quartile programmer would be a more meaningful statement when considering HR decisions particularly since productivity is usually going to drop fast when changing workplace, domain, preferred languages, development styles, and coworkers. You aren't getting 10x what you would expect given that you are optimistic in whoever you hire.. You are getting about 2.5x iff they are "10X".