6 ms·

This man is a wizard. You can also thank him for ffmpeg and qemu. A company I worked for once tried to hire him as a consultant because he had implemented an LT

This man is a wizard. You can also thank him for ffmpeg and qemu. A company I worked for once tried to hire him as a consultant because he had implemented an LTE BTS in software. Is there anything he hasn't done? EDIT: tombert beat me to it[0] by a couple minutes. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20413498 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20413498

MuffinFlavored 7y ago
He's probably worth $300-$500/hr if not $1k...
- anderspitman 7y ago
  Can you really put a number on this level of skill and productivity?
  - shsh 7y ago
    Yeah... his current employer already does.
    - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
      Do you know who his current employer is (if any)?
      - Riada 7y ago
        He has his own company now with another partner (https://www.amarisoft.com/ https://www.amarisoft.com/) where they work on and distribute the LTE software he wrote.
        metamet 7y ago
        Well, the scrolljacking is evidence no one is infallible. ;)
        allover 7y ago
        Well, not all lazy HN commentary, like criticisms of 'scrolljacking' should be taken seriously. ;)
      - bshimmin 7y ago
        It seems like he works here: https://www.amarisoft.com/about-us/ https://www.amarisoft.com/about-us/
    - akavi 7y ago
      You assume he's optimizing for money.
  - quickthrower2 7y ago
    The problem with putting a $ figure on it is that people who create free software create emmense amounts of value but don't capture even a tiny fraction for themselves. OTOH to montize their genius they need to help corporates do things that are not neccesarily great for society. Also a coporate situation may hamper their genius, although at this level he probably gets to call the shots. Also a lot of useless consultants would earn that much, as would people doing shady shit, as well as many talented people so the $ comparison is kind of insulting.
- FiloSottile 7y ago
  That's a pretty standard range for high level consultants. Bellard can definitely bill well above that, if there are tasks that require his talent.
  - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
    How much higher above $1k/hr can he bill?...
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - SkyMarshal 7y ago
      Someone like him wouldn’t be billing by the hour, but rather as a portion of overall value created. For the kind of non-trivial jobs worth his time, six figures at least.
- Aissen 7y ago
  There's at least two years of work in there as Fabrice Bellard's side project. This would mean about ~10-15 man-years of full-time work for a small team of experienced engineers, which is about what it took for jerryscript: https://github.com/jerryscript-project/jerryscript https://github.com/jerryscript-project/jerryscript Granted, the targets aren't exactly the same (micro-controllers vs very small lib), but benchmark differences are impressive: https://bellard.org/quickjs/bench.html https://bellard.org/quickjs/bench.html
- akavi 7y ago
  Any FAANG would happily pay him a 7 figure salary if he was interested.
  - anderspitman 7y ago
    Normally I'd consider this hyperbole, but if I had the means I would absolutely offer it. He's a generational talent.
tombert 7y ago
Ha! Fabrice is prolific enough to where two people felt that they had to exclaim it to the world.
blondin 7y ago
yes! he has been one of my favorite programmers over all these years. so happy that he continues to dispel the 10x programmer myth. at least, as far as i am concerned. we should all take note. it's less about productivity but more about focus and hard work. this project seems to have started in 2017. from a quick glance at the code, they used c (his favorite language) -- which by the way people are still there convincing us not to use. many of us would have been discouraged, distracted, or simply fazed by the pace of our field. that is so inspiring.
- ctz 7y ago
  > from a quick glance at the code, they used c (his favorite language) -- which by the way people are still there convincing us not to use. Here is an alleged UAF in this library https://twitter.com/qwertyoruiopz/status/1149424025111801858 https://twitter.com/qwertyoruiopz/status/1149424025111801858
  - blondin 7y ago
    that's an excellent point. kudos for that hacker!
- hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
  > so happy that he continues to dispel the 10x programmer myth What do you mean by that? The only way I see him dispelling that myth is that he's a 100x programmer instead of a 10x.
  - anderspitman 7y ago
    https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1149418907247104000?s=20 https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1149418907247104000?s...
  - nkozyra 7y ago
    I think OP was saying the myth of the myth was dispelled.
- segmondy 7y ago

MuffinFlavored 7y ago

He's probably worth $300-$500/hr if not $1k...

anderspitman 7y ago
Can you really put a number on this level of skill and productivity?
- shsh 7y ago
  Yeah... his current employer already does.
  - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
    Do you know who his current employer is (if any)?
    - Riada 7y ago
      He has his own company now with another partner (https://www.amarisoft.com/ https://www.amarisoft.com/) where they work on and distribute the LTE software he wrote.
      - metamet 7y ago
        Well, the scrolljacking is evidence no one is infallible. ;)
        allover 7y ago
        Well, not all lazy HN commentary, like criticisms of 'scrolljacking' should be taken seriously. ;)
    - bshimmin 7y ago
      It seems like he works here: https://www.amarisoft.com/about-us/ https://www.amarisoft.com/about-us/
  - akavi 7y ago
    You assume he's optimizing for money.
- quickthrower2 7y ago
  The problem with putting a $ figure on it is that people who create free software create emmense amounts of value but don't capture even a tiny fraction for themselves. OTOH to montize their genius they need to help corporates do things that are not neccesarily great for society. Also a coporate situation may hamper their genius, although at this level he probably gets to call the shots. Also a lot of useless consultants would earn that much, as would people doing shady shit, as well as many talented people so the $ comparison is kind of insulting.
FiloSottile 7y ago
That's a pretty standard range for high level consultants. Bellard can definitely bill well above that, if there are tasks that require his talent.
- MuffinFlavored 7y ago
  How much higher above $1k/hr can he bill?...
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - SkyMarshal 7y ago
    Someone like him wouldn’t be billing by the hour, but rather as a portion of overall value created. For the kind of non-trivial jobs worth his time, six figures at least.
Aissen 7y ago
There's at least two years of work in there as Fabrice Bellard's side project. This would mean about ~10-15 man-years of full-time work for a small team of experienced engineers, which is about what it took for jerryscript: https://github.com/jerryscript-project/jerryscript https://github.com/jerryscript-project/jerryscript Granted, the targets aren't exactly the same (micro-controllers vs very small lib), but benchmark differences are impressive: https://bellard.org/quickjs/bench.html https://bellard.org/quickjs/bench.html
akavi 7y ago
Any FAANG would happily pay him a 7 figure salary if he was interested.
- anderspitman 7y ago
  Normally I'd consider this hyperbole, but if I had the means I would absolutely offer it. He's a generational talent.

tombert 7y ago

Ha! Fabrice is prolific enough to where two people felt that they had to exclaim it to the world.

blondin 7y ago

yes! he has been one of my favorite programmers over all these years. so happy that he continues to dispel the 10x programmer myth. at least, as far as i am concerned. we should all take note. it's less about productivity but more about focus and hard work. this project seems to have started in 2017. from a quick glance at the code, they used c (his favorite language) -- which by the way people are still there convincing us not to use. many of us would have been discouraged, distracted, or simply fazed by the pace of our field. that is so inspiring.

ctz 7y ago
> from a quick glance at the code, they used c (his favorite language) -- which by the way people are still there convincing us not to use. Here is an alleged UAF in this library https://twitter.com/qwertyoruiopz/status/1149424025111801858 https://twitter.com/qwertyoruiopz/status/1149424025111801858
- blondin 7y ago
  that's an excellent point. kudos for that hacker!
hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
> so happy that he continues to dispel the 10x programmer myth What do you mean by that? The only way I see him dispelling that myth is that he's a 100x programmer instead of a 10x.
- anderspitman 7y ago
  https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1149418907247104000?s=20 https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1149418907247104000?s...
- nkozyra 7y ago
  I think OP was saying the myth of the myth was dispelled.
segmondy 7y ago