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I think there's a real truth there - the most lauded 10x programmers are typically the "face" of a group of talented and productive people. As their legend grow

I think there's a real truth there - the most lauded 10x programmers are typically the "face" of a group of talented and productive people. As their legend grows, more and more work of the group gets attributed to them. I think Elon Musk is another good example of this phenomenon. Certainly, there are programmers vastly more productive than the average, but I think when you think of any legendary programmer (Linus, Carmack, Knuth), you're also likely impressed by their significant supporting cast.

beat 7y ago
I'd exempt Knuth from that, as he's practically a monk in his loner ways, but I also think of him as "genius", rather than "10x".
- dragontamer 7y ago
  Knuth is famously a slow worker, but he "gets to the bottom" of any problem. He's basically a turtle (from the Tortoise vs Hare story). A giant "juggernaut" turtle. You can't stop his analysis, but it takes a long time to get anywhere. Its been over 40 years and he's still writing "Art of Computer Programming" books, and fixing errors in the text. Its an exceptionally well-crafted piece of writing. His solutions to various programming problems are excellent too, great analysis and deep thought applied to them. Definitely not the "10x programmer" of today's lore. Knuth is an older, gentler kind of genius that I have a huge amount of respect for. --------- For those who haven't read Knuth's works yet, I suggest starting with Knuth's analysis into Alpha Beta pruning: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dce2/6118156e5bc287bca2465a62e75af39c7e85.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dce2/6118156e5bc287bca2465a... Knuth's writing style is just so much deeper and thorough than pretty much everything else. You have to give the guy mad respect. Of course, I also recommend reading "The Art of Computer Programming", but that's far more material to read through. The ~34 pages on Alpha-Beta pruning are a quicker introduction to Knuth's writing style. Even if you think you know how Alpha-Beta pruning works, Knuth goes far deeper into the subject than you might imagine. EDIT: In particular, the F -> F1 -> F2 algorithm (F being Minimax, F2 being Alpha-Beta, and F1 being an in-between algorithm to help describe F2) is brilliant writing. Only Knuth would spend so much effort describing F1. But all that effort into F1 helps both his analysis, as well as better describes what is going on in Alpha-Beta pruning (aka F2).

beat 7y ago

I'd exempt Knuth from that, as he's practically a monk in his loner ways, but I also think of him as "genius", rather than "10x".

dragontamer 7y ago
Knuth is famously a slow worker, but he "gets to the bottom" of any problem. He's basically a turtle (from the Tortoise vs Hare story). A giant "juggernaut" turtle. You can't stop his analysis, but it takes a long time to get anywhere. Its been over 40 years and he's still writing "Art of Computer Programming" books, and fixing errors in the text. Its an exceptionally well-crafted piece of writing. His solutions to various programming problems are excellent too, great analysis and deep thought applied to them. Definitely not the "10x programmer" of today's lore. Knuth is an older, gentler kind of genius that I have a huge amount of respect for. --------- For those who haven't read Knuth's works yet, I suggest starting with Knuth's analysis into Alpha Beta pruning: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dce2/6118156e5bc287bca2465a62e75af39c7e85.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dce2/6118156e5bc287bca2465a... Knuth's writing style is just so much deeper and thorough than pretty much everything else. You have to give the guy mad respect. Of course, I also recommend reading "The Art of Computer Programming", but that's far more material to read through. The ~34 pages on Alpha-Beta pruning are a quicker introduction to Knuth's writing style. Even if you think you know how Alpha-Beta pruning works, Knuth goes far deeper into the subject than you might imagine. EDIT: In particular, the F -> F1 -> F2 algorithm (F being Minimax, F2 being Alpha-Beta, and F1 being an in-between algorithm to help describe F2) is brilliant writing. Only Knuth would spend so much effort describing F1. But all that effort into F1 helps both his analysis, as well as better describes what is going on in Alpha-Beta pruning (aka F2).