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I’m a definite believer in 10x developers because I’ve seen these mythical beasts with my own eyes. For instance, dev teams of 20+ where one person is the abso

I’m a definite believer in 10x developers because I’ve seen these mythical beasts with my own eyes. For instance, dev teams of 20+ where one person is the absolute backbone of the team and churning out features faster than the rest of the team put together. I’ve seen maybe 5 instances of this across hundreds of teams I’ve worked with (I was a developer turned consultant so have a lot of data). They are rare beasts but 10x devs absolutely exist.

barking 7y ago
Maybe you're only aware of these beasts because their codebases need disproportionately more maintenance? Please say yes. :-)
mugsie 7y ago
I am not saying you are wrong, but could it also be: 1. the person had been there the longest, and had the most context on the code base. 2. There was very little docs on the code base, so new people had to go to them. 3. This person would just do the feature instead of helping the other person implement the feature, and ensure their position as "top feature churner" If these are true, they may be 10x of the others on the team, but they are holding the team back by not dropping themselves to 4x and lifting up the other team members to 2x.
- laichzeit0 7y ago
  It's so weird to see so many people argue so hard that the Usain Bolt's of the programming world simply cannot / should not exist.
  - mugsie 7y ago
    Sprinting - individual sport. Development - team sport. You could put Messi on my company's 5 a side lunch time team, and we still wouldn't win the champions league, and the skill of the others on the team would atrophy, and they would become over reliant on a single person. Not a great thing for a team. A true "10x" engineer raises up the team by 10x by doing the things a lot of devs hate doing - docs, mentoring, guidance (without taking over someone's feature), and knowledge sharing. Not shipping :all-the-things: on their own.
    - randomsearch 7y ago
      Oh, a thousand times this. Absolutely. I would love to work with that developer.
    - zimpenfish 7y ago
      > Messi One of my assertions is that Messi hasn't proven himself to be a GOAT until he's been great somewhere else. It's easy* to perform at a high level when the entire team is built around you as at Barcelona. In non-Messi-specific environments (ie Argentina national team), he just doesn't perform as well. Whereas Ronaldo, on the other hand, has done it in several distinct environments and elevated the teams he's been in (which I guess makes him a "true" 10x player?)
      - mugsie 7y ago
        honestly, I just googled "best football player 2019" and it was the first result :)
      - kumoflow 7y ago
        But still is the same thing. If Ronaldo, the best player in the world, would be considered a 10x player, it would mean that him and just a goal keeper would be able to compete with other professional teams, which we all know is bullocks. The original 10x term was about productivity (and namely, lines of code that is pretty much bunk). For me is always about what is a 1x developer. If we consider them a professional developer that does their tasks (somewhat) on time, documented, and with minimal bugs, which I would consider the baseline for what I would call a professional developer, I have a strong opinion you won't find 10x developers compared to this. On the other hand, if a 1x developer is a person that can't create a simple algorithm(fizzbuzz), copy pasts code from every possible source, including his own code from file A to file B, etc etc, then sure, 10x developers are there, but this is because we set the bar too low.
    - username90 7y ago
      > A true "10x" engineer raises up the team by 10x by doing the things a lot of devs hate doing - docs, mentoring, guidance (without taking over someone's feature), and knowledge sharing. Not shipping :all-the-things: on their own. That is gate-keeping, a person who could replace a team is 10x no matter if he is super helpful to slower developers or not. Of course you'd prefer to work with the guy who makes you look better instead of the guy who makes you look bad, but both are still 10x. However a person who just wants some development work done would prefer to work with a single 10x over trying to organize a whole team, a single guy will be more agile and much easier to communicate with while trying to get 10 persons to pull in the same direction is a monumental task. In that environment it doesn't matter if the dev can help slower devs or not, all that matters is that he can communicate with stake holders and users about requirements. Development is a team sport, yes, but it is a team sport where some people can act as a whole team on their own.
  - omegabravo 7y ago
    likewise, it's weird to see people compare Usain Bolt who's only concern is to run for 100m in a straight line, with the complex diverse field of software engineering. Winning in a 100m sprint is a simple contest to measure. You win or you don't. The parent raised perfectly relevant qualifiers that were summarily dismissed because the hypothetical 10X programmers exist. It's hard to argue against excellent programmers, statistically they must exist. All this work identifying them and the qualities is a bit silly when it's hard to even define the term.
    - Nyandalized 7y ago
      I think it's a perfectly valid analogy; A runner is doing everything you'd be doing running, but more, and can achieve far greater speeds that you ever can.
  - Chris2048 7y ago
    No one argued that, just that "Usain Bolt's" shouldn't be that common.
  - khazhoux 7y ago
    The pride of others offends our tastes only when it offends our own pride.
  - JamesBarney 7y ago
    Usain Bolt isn't 10x faster than the average human much less the average professional sprinter.
    - dllthomas 7y ago
      If quickly-googled numbers are any indication, Usain Bolt isn't 10x faster than my walking speed.
  - pizza234 7y ago
    It's the product of a culture where success is the core of identity. I agree that it's weird, and to me it's also a delusion. As a delusion, though, it also has a function. Most of the people will never meet outliers in their field, and this will protect their self-esteem with the thought that the outliers don't exist, can't exist or that those skills can be reached with enough effort. If the connection success was disconnected from identity, then there would be no need for this delusion, since admitting that somebody could be immensely better in a certain field wouldn't hurt self-esteem.
- n_ary 7y ago
  I agree to this. As I commented elsewhere, this is what most 10x I have come in contact with can be described as(sort of).
KUcxrAVrtI 7y ago
I have seen a lot more 10x engineers that were just pilling technical debt on.
- Nyandalized 7y ago
  They'd not be a 10x engineer then. The whole "x"ness is an oversimplification, which is the point of the article
kartan 7y ago
> For instance, dev teams of 20+ where one person is the absolute backbone of the team and churning out features faster than the rest of the team put together. I also have seen that. And, when that person leaves is another one from the group that took the role. Because you can have so many roosters in a flock. It is so important to be able to lead as to let other lead you. Too many people, especially managers, does not understands potential. They see the result without taking into account any context. Can be even bad. In one team, there was this guy that was more productive than the rest. He was an asshole. Everything has to be done his way, so, it was clear why he was the fastest one. Without him the team will have been faster and the product delivered earlier. But, the manager only was comparing outputs and the asshole that did not let the rest of the team work had higher output. So, yes, there is people that are 10x. But, they are the ones that share knowledge, that put the team needs above her owns. It is that person that everybody wants to work with. And usually has little to do with personal output and more with improvements in the overall team performance. Too many times I have worked with self-proclaimed 10x that are just making other people lives miserable and are surrounded with people that is new because his previous colleagues have left the company. So, you are right. I just wanted to make clear what, at least for me, it means to be a 10x developer.
GordonS 7y ago
Maybe another way to look at it is those less productive are 0.1x developers? I don't know - I've been the developer that produced more than the rest of the team combined, but it's important to stay grounded. An arrogant developer is going to be resented or even hated, regardless of productivity. I also feel it's important to mentor other team members if you are more skilled in some areas - someone who shares the fruits of their knowledge and experience is more valuable to the rest of the team.

barking 7y ago

Maybe you're only aware of these beasts because their codebases need disproportionately more maintenance? Please say yes. :-)

mugsie 7y ago

I am not saying you are wrong, but could it also be: 1. the person had been there the longest, and had the most context on the code base. 2. There was very little docs on the code base, so new people had to go to them. 3. This person would just do the feature instead of helping the other person implement the feature, and ensure their position as "top feature churner" If these are true, they may be 10x of the others on the team, but they are holding the team back by not dropping themselves to 4x and lifting up the other team members to 2x.

laichzeit0 7y ago
It's so weird to see so many people argue so hard that the Usain Bolt's of the programming world simply cannot / should not exist.
- mugsie 7y ago
  Sprinting - individual sport. Development - team sport. You could put Messi on my company's 5 a side lunch time team, and we still wouldn't win the champions league, and the skill of the others on the team would atrophy, and they would become over reliant on a single person. Not a great thing for a team. A true "10x" engineer raises up the team by 10x by doing the things a lot of devs hate doing - docs, mentoring, guidance (without taking over someone's feature), and knowledge sharing. Not shipping :all-the-things: on their own.
  - randomsearch 7y ago
    Oh, a thousand times this. Absolutely. I would love to work with that developer.
  - zimpenfish 7y ago
    > Messi One of my assertions is that Messi hasn't proven himself to be a GOAT until he's been great somewhere else. It's easy* to perform at a high level when the entire team is built around you as at Barcelona. In non-Messi-specific environments (ie Argentina national team), he just doesn't perform as well. Whereas Ronaldo, on the other hand, has done it in several distinct environments and elevated the teams he's been in (which I guess makes him a "true" 10x player?)
    - mugsie 7y ago
      honestly, I just googled "best football player 2019" and it was the first result :)
    - kumoflow 7y ago
      But still is the same thing. If Ronaldo, the best player in the world, would be considered a 10x player, it would mean that him and just a goal keeper would be able to compete with other professional teams, which we all know is bullocks. The original 10x term was about productivity (and namely, lines of code that is pretty much bunk). For me is always about what is a 1x developer. If we consider them a professional developer that does their tasks (somewhat) on time, documented, and with minimal bugs, which I would consider the baseline for what I would call a professional developer, I have a strong opinion you won't find 10x developers compared to this. On the other hand, if a 1x developer is a person that can't create a simple algorithm(fizzbuzz), copy pasts code from every possible source, including his own code from file A to file B, etc etc, then sure, 10x developers are there, but this is because we set the bar too low.
  - username90 7y ago
    > A true "10x" engineer raises up the team by 10x by doing the things a lot of devs hate doing - docs, mentoring, guidance (without taking over someone's feature), and knowledge sharing. Not shipping :all-the-things: on their own. That is gate-keeping, a person who could replace a team is 10x no matter if he is super helpful to slower developers or not. Of course you'd prefer to work with the guy who makes you look better instead of the guy who makes you look bad, but both are still 10x. However a person who just wants some development work done would prefer to work with a single 10x over trying to organize a whole team, a single guy will be more agile and much easier to communicate with while trying to get 10 persons to pull in the same direction is a monumental task. In that environment it doesn't matter if the dev can help slower devs or not, all that matters is that he can communicate with stake holders and users about requirements. Development is a team sport, yes, but it is a team sport where some people can act as a whole team on their own.
- omegabravo 7y ago
  likewise, it's weird to see people compare Usain Bolt who's only concern is to run for 100m in a straight line, with the complex diverse field of software engineering. Winning in a 100m sprint is a simple contest to measure. You win or you don't. The parent raised perfectly relevant qualifiers that were summarily dismissed because the hypothetical 10X programmers exist. It's hard to argue against excellent programmers, statistically they must exist. All this work identifying them and the qualities is a bit silly when it's hard to even define the term.
  - Nyandalized 7y ago
    I think it's a perfectly valid analogy; A runner is doing everything you'd be doing running, but more, and can achieve far greater speeds that you ever can.
- Chris2048 7y ago
  No one argued that, just that "Usain Bolt's" shouldn't be that common.
- khazhoux 7y ago
  The pride of others offends our tastes only when it offends our own pride.
- JamesBarney 7y ago
  Usain Bolt isn't 10x faster than the average human much less the average professional sprinter.
  - dllthomas 7y ago
    If quickly-googled numbers are any indication, Usain Bolt isn't 10x faster than my walking speed.
- pizza234 7y ago
  It's the product of a culture where success is the core of identity. I agree that it's weird, and to me it's also a delusion. As a delusion, though, it also has a function. Most of the people will never meet outliers in their field, and this will protect their self-esteem with the thought that the outliers don't exist, can't exist or that those skills can be reached with enough effort. If the connection success was disconnected from identity, then there would be no need for this delusion, since admitting that somebody could be immensely better in a certain field wouldn't hurt self-esteem.
n_ary 7y ago
I agree to this. As I commented elsewhere, this is what most 10x I have come in contact with can be described as(sort of).

KUcxrAVrtI 7y ago

I have seen a lot more 10x engineers that were just pilling technical debt on.

Nyandalized 7y ago
They'd not be a 10x engineer then. The whole "x"ness is an oversimplification, which is the point of the article

kartan 7y ago

> For instance, dev teams of 20+ where one person is the absolute backbone of the team and churning out features faster than the rest of the team put together. I also have seen that. And, when that person leaves is another one from the group that took the role. Because you can have so many roosters in a flock. It is so important to be able to lead as to let other lead you. Too many people, especially managers, does not understands potential. They see the result without taking into account any context. Can be even bad. In one team, there was this guy that was more productive than the rest. He was an asshole. Everything has to be done his way, so, it was clear why he was the fastest one. Without him the team will have been faster and the product delivered earlier. But, the manager only was comparing outputs and the asshole that did not let the rest of the team work had higher output. So, yes, there is people that are 10x. But, they are the ones that share knowledge, that put the team needs above her owns. It is that person that everybody wants to work with. And usually has little to do with personal output and more with improvements in the overall team performance. Too many times I have worked with self-proclaimed 10x that are just making other people lives miserable and are surrounded with people that is new because his previous colleagues have left the company. So, you are right. I just wanted to make clear what, at least for me, it means to be a 10x developer.

GordonS 7y ago

Maybe another way to look at it is those less productive are 0.1x developers? I don't know - I've been the developer that produced more than the rest of the team combined, but it's important to stay grounded. An arrogant developer is going to be resented or even hated, regardless of productivity. I also feel it's important to mentor other team members if you are more skilled in some areas - someone who shares the fruits of their knowledge and experience is more valuable to the rest of the team.