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This is so important. Anyone with goals of being a "10x developer" (whatever that is) also needs to focus on being 0.1x stuck.

scarface74 7y ago
The 10x developer - individual contributor -is not quite a unicorn but so close to it it might as well be. The best way to be a 10x contributor is by having a team under you.
- nrb 7y ago
  One underrated way to be a 10x contributor is to mentor others to make 5-10 of your 1-2x self, not including the compounding benefits that accrue as those you mentored begin to do the same (having themselves realized the value of mentorship).
  - scarface74 7y ago
    And you won’t last too long if your role in the company is to crank out code and not be a mentor. You don’t have to be an official lead, you could even be lead on a project or “single responsible individual”.
    - daxfohl 7y ago
      That's going a little far. I work with plenty of people who have no desire to do anything but crank out code and have been doing so for 20+ years. The promotion path is slower for sure, but nobody is throwing out a great developer just because.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        I have no problem with people who just want to crank out code, but if you spend half your time “mentoring” and not cranking out code, how will that look on your performance review? I’m officially an individual contributor at a smallish software company (20-25 developers) and while I don’t “mentor” junior developers I do have a slightly louder voice when it comes to architectural and infrastructure decisions just because of my experience (I’m a recovering dev lead from another company). But I fight every week with a project manager who is just interested in getting stories complete when everyone looks to me to answer infrastructure/AWS questions - including CxOs.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
        I think scarface74 is right. At my last job, it was clear from the job descriptions that certain people (like me) were expected to spend a substantial amount of time mentoring, leading and working on higher-level tasks, and others were expected to primarily code. IIRC, the pie chart showed that I was only expected to code around 15% of my time. But that was because the organization realized that after a certain point, the knowledge of the senior developers was best used to bring up the level of the team rather than just crank out code. If you're a dev who's expected to basically produce code all day long but you decide you'd rather spend your time helping others, you shouldn't be surprised when you take a hit on your performance review. This isn't a problem with the organization, per se. It's a problem with a dev deciding to do something other than what he's expected to be doing.
- solidasparagus 7y ago
  The best way to be a 10x developer is focusing on the right work. If we take the 80/20 rule to be true (20% of the work delivers 80% of the value), that means the person who is working on the valuable 20% gets 16x more value from each hour they work than someone who is working on the less valuable 80%.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    The developer - the individual contributor - rarely gets to decide what the “right work” is in any large organization.
    - solidasparagus 7y ago
      Then choose the right job.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        So which job do you know of where the developer gets to prioritize what to work on over the business people? When that happens you end up like Google and have a new failing chat app every week or like the 1990s Apple with research projects that never ship.

scarface74 7y ago

The 10x developer - individual contributor -is not quite a unicorn but so close to it it might as well be. The best way to be a 10x contributor is by having a team under you.

nrb 7y ago
One underrated way to be a 10x contributor is to mentor others to make 5-10 of your 1-2x self, not including the compounding benefits that accrue as those you mentored begin to do the same (having themselves realized the value of mentorship).
- scarface74 7y ago
  And you won’t last too long if your role in the company is to crank out code and not be a mentor. You don’t have to be an official lead, you could even be lead on a project or “single responsible individual”.
  - daxfohl 7y ago
    That's going a little far. I work with plenty of people who have no desire to do anything but crank out code and have been doing so for 20+ years. The promotion path is slower for sure, but nobody is throwing out a great developer just because.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      I have no problem with people who just want to crank out code, but if you spend half your time “mentoring” and not cranking out code, how will that look on your performance review? I’m officially an individual contributor at a smallish software company (20-25 developers) and while I don’t “mentor” junior developers I do have a slightly louder voice when it comes to architectural and infrastructure decisions just because of my experience (I’m a recovering dev lead from another company). But I fight every week with a project manager who is just interested in getting stories complete when everyone looks to me to answer infrastructure/AWS questions - including CxOs.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 7y ago
      I think scarface74 is right. At my last job, it was clear from the job descriptions that certain people (like me) were expected to spend a substantial amount of time mentoring, leading and working on higher-level tasks, and others were expected to primarily code. IIRC, the pie chart showed that I was only expected to code around 15% of my time. But that was because the organization realized that after a certain point, the knowledge of the senior developers was best used to bring up the level of the team rather than just crank out code. If you're a dev who's expected to basically produce code all day long but you decide you'd rather spend your time helping others, you shouldn't be surprised when you take a hit on your performance review. This isn't a problem with the organization, per se. It's a problem with a dev deciding to do something other than what he's expected to be doing.
solidasparagus 7y ago
The best way to be a 10x developer is focusing on the right work. If we take the 80/20 rule to be true (20% of the work delivers 80% of the value), that means the person who is working on the valuable 20% gets 16x more value from each hour they work than someone who is working on the less valuable 80%.
- scarface74 7y ago
  The developer - the individual contributor - rarely gets to decide what the “right work” is in any large organization.
  - solidasparagus 7y ago
    Then choose the right job.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      So which job do you know of where the developer gets to prioritize what to work on over the business people? When that happens you end up like Google and have a new failing chat app every week or like the 1990s Apple with research projects that never ship.