5 ms·

>The 10x programmer is essentially a libertarian concept: That is, they do it all by themselves because they don’t recognize how much is done for them by others

>The 10x programmer is essentially a libertarian concept: That is, they do it all by themselves because they don’t recognize how much is done for them by others. I'm finding myself meeting a lot of "10x" descriptors. I'm not doing 10x the work but I'm definitely doing the work of the next two highest performing colleagues put together. I also see myself putting burdens on my team. My communication, teamwork, and managerial skills are poor and always will be. Yet I always seem to do things technically that makes people look at me like I discovered fire. For me to say I didn't outperform my colleagues would be effectively to say I had no value as an employee since there would be nothing to compensate for my shortcomings. There have been meetings about me where everybody except me was in the room and I was talked about and the only reasons the team decided not to fire me was my performance and work ethic. It makes me feel really bad reading all the response to high performers that aren't well rounded like they are inherently arrogant toxic drags on a team. There's nothing wrong with having an employee with a lopsided skillset in a team that can support somebody like that. I think seeing such employees as inherently toxic, or seeing them as a holy grail. They're like artillery; only effective with support.

deogeo 7y ago
> My communication, teamwork, and managerial skills are poor and always will be. Could you elaborate on how they're poor? And why you think it won't/can't change? You seem to have expressed yourself very clearly in this post, so at least when it comes to communication, I can't deduce any shortcomings (from this post).
- TheOperator 7y ago
  Autism. So text based communication isn't impaired. Also led me to spend a lot of time on the computer so I naturally got better at using them. I send a lot of emails at work and my co-workers will usually try and deal with walkups. Writing is a strong point for me. There's little problems with communication like having the emotional intelligence to tell when your co-workers are having a hard time and when to back off and treat them differently. I lack that which puts extra stress on them. I tend to say too much and make my team lose face and cause us political problems. So I try to compensate by doing such a good job my co-workers won't be under as much pressure to work hard and my team will be doing such a good job we won't get in shit.
  - yarg 7y ago
    Just know your limitations. I worked with a guy, somewhere on the spectrum. He was very good at some things, but understanding other people's perspectives wasn't one of them. He was excellent from a broad architectural perspective, but failed to acknowledge his limitations in regard to API development and user facing content. There will always be a difficulty in understanding why it is that certain concepts are beyond our grasp, but it might not stop us from understanding that they are.
    - turk73 7y ago
      I'm so confused. At times I thought I was a 10X or maybe just a 5X. Being a humble person, I don't self-promote. My current team seems to have few problems dealing with me and we have had a lot of success this year. It's also a really big company, and I think I do best at these big places where things are generally impersonal and the sheer number of employees averages out the rough edges in peoples' skill sets. My last team, however, was a different story. It was a small shop of only 7 developers and everyone knew everyone else's business and I swear they spent a lot of their time gas lighting me into believing I was somehow "not right" which I found amusing at times and heartbreaking at other times. The one female on the team was an absolute man-hater and the architect, an alcoholic. So clearly other issues going on. I just can't figure why any of it was taken out on me, I didn't do anything to them that I know of. I don't want to say they are assholes, but maybe just "people with major issues?" That would be more kind. Anyhow, yes, I may be austistic or something along those lines although I was never diagnosed as such. The only thing psychologists told my parents was "gifted" and sort of left at that. I've had a troubled career and looking back it was never to do with technical abilities, which I have in spades, but always with the interpersonal skills, empathy, etc. But I've been married for 16 years and I have two kids, so clearly I'm not some hopeless case.
  - jonplackett 7y ago
    Thanks for sharing this. It's fascinating to read the article and then have such a blatant counter-view/argument/description in the comments. I've really started to like HN mostly for the comments these days.
  - 7y ago
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

deogeo 7y ago

> My communication, teamwork, and managerial skills are poor and always will be. Could you elaborate on how they're poor? And why you think it won't/can't change? You seem to have expressed yourself very clearly in this post, so at least when it comes to communication, I can't deduce any shortcomings (from this post).

TheOperator 7y ago
Autism. So text based communication isn't impaired. Also led me to spend a lot of time on the computer so I naturally got better at using them. I send a lot of emails at work and my co-workers will usually try and deal with walkups. Writing is a strong point for me. There's little problems with communication like having the emotional intelligence to tell when your co-workers are having a hard time and when to back off and treat them differently. I lack that which puts extra stress on them. I tend to say too much and make my team lose face and cause us political problems. So I try to compensate by doing such a good job my co-workers won't be under as much pressure to work hard and my team will be doing such a good job we won't get in shit.
- yarg 7y ago
  Just know your limitations. I worked with a guy, somewhere on the spectrum. He was very good at some things, but understanding other people's perspectives wasn't one of them. He was excellent from a broad architectural perspective, but failed to acknowledge his limitations in regard to API development and user facing content. There will always be a difficulty in understanding why it is that certain concepts are beyond our grasp, but it might not stop us from understanding that they are.
  - turk73 7y ago
    I'm so confused. At times I thought I was a 10X or maybe just a 5X. Being a humble person, I don't self-promote. My current team seems to have few problems dealing with me and we have had a lot of success this year. It's also a really big company, and I think I do best at these big places where things are generally impersonal and the sheer number of employees averages out the rough edges in peoples' skill sets. My last team, however, was a different story. It was a small shop of only 7 developers and everyone knew everyone else's business and I swear they spent a lot of their time gas lighting me into believing I was somehow "not right" which I found amusing at times and heartbreaking at other times. The one female on the team was an absolute man-hater and the architect, an alcoholic. So clearly other issues going on. I just can't figure why any of it was taken out on me, I didn't do anything to them that I know of. I don't want to say they are assholes, but maybe just "people with major issues?" That would be more kind. Anyhow, yes, I may be austistic or something along those lines although I was never diagnosed as such. The only thing psychologists told my parents was "gifted" and sort of left at that. I've had a troubled career and looking back it was never to do with technical abilities, which I have in spades, but always with the interpersonal skills, empathy, etc. But I've been married for 16 years and I have two kids, so clearly I'm not some hopeless case.
- jonplackett 7y ago
  Thanks for sharing this. It's fascinating to read the article and then have such a blatant counter-view/argument/description in the comments. I've really started to like HN mostly for the comments these days.
- 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]