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I hate the notion of "10x developer". It focuses on hiring the best person, rather than firing individuals who undermine the team. The reality is, there are so

I hate the notion of "10x developer". It focuses on hiring the best person, rather than firing individuals who undermine the team. The reality is, there are some 1x developers, and some .5x developers. Even worse though are the -1x developers. So many times I see a corporate culture of firing = bad, so lets just try to find someone who is a "10x", when really all you need is to remove the people who cause more work for the organization. Its our job as managers to accept that we hired someone who is ineffective, damaging the team and that OUR hiring process failed to catch that. Then to deal with them (training, firing) and iterate on the hiring process to prevent the issue going forward.

ses1984 7y ago
I knew two 10x developers at my previous job. One of them was humble and a great mentor and elevated everyone around him. One was a grump who made everyone around him feel stupid. Imo toxicity is independent from productivity.
- justaguyhere 7y ago
  Same experience. I learned quite a bit simply by sitting next to an exceptionally good and exceptionally nice developer who was at least a decade older than the rest of the team and enjoyed helping others. He rarely got stressed even in crunch times and that put rest of the team at ease.
  - abyssin 7y ago
    The simple idea of this being possible, and picturing the scene in my head, gave me a lot of hope. I'm tired of the atmosphere of fear in the office, and I'm tired of how I participate in it.
- joelbluminator 7y ago
  We need to look at the role more broadly, being a developer isn't just churning out code. A lot of young talented guys just follow their passion and hack away abstraction after abstraction instead of trying to see what the product really needs. So you could say they're amazingly productive, or you could say they actually provided very little value. And a toxic wreck can't be productive by definition; if you demoralise everyone around you reduce productivity! The fact some people can get away with is a bug in hiring.
- dagmx 7y ago
  I’ll add that toxicity is not unique to 10x. Your last line covers that but many people tend to think 1x people are necessarily more humble by virtue of knowing their output relative to the team. (Assuming everyone believes in the 1x/10x thing) I’ve known plenty of mediocre devs who would be a 0.5x but thought they should be a 10x and made up the difference in unfounded confidence.
- swader999 7y ago
  The first type you mentioned is a rare gem that should be treasured.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  There are plenty of 10x developers who are socially inept but do very well doing work by themselves, and then there are 10x managers who can deal with those devs well enough so they can work effectively enough in team environments. Unfortunately, good 10x managers are rarer than toxic 10x devs (and a real monster is a toxic 10x manager). There are also devs whose technical skills have outpaced their social skills temporarily, but they get better later...
joelbluminator 7y ago
Most companies don't need a "10x developer", especially if you're building yet another CRUD web app. You need good, hard working people who love the profession and are good working in a team. That's it. It doesn't take Einstein to do this job. Maybe if you're Shopify it makes sense to hire a few of the greatest Rails developers out there (which they did), but otherwise? This isn't rocket science.
pjc50 7y ago
I too have met "-1x" developers, but if someone like that persists then either they have political cover or they are very careful about who they show their bad side to. The worst case is if they were hired as a "10x" developer, at which point they can't be fired without their hiring manager admitting they made a mistake.
- dagmx 7y ago
  In some cases, it’s because the cost of letting them go and hiring+training another individual is daunting. Both monetarily and in time. You also don’t know if the new hire will necessarily be better. There’s also other factors like firing someone doesn’t necessarily get you back a headcount immediately. Visa caps also play into this because for certain roles we legitimately could not find enough candidates locally, so letting someone go means you couldn’t find someone till the following year. I’ve been in this situation where I’ve had to convince my managers that the teams I managed would be better served without certain individuals and I’d rather hire someone new. Even when the entire management chain agreed, it came down to the issues above.
swader999 7y ago
Any project or company that needs a hero to save the day is a warning sign. Approach with caution.
0xy 7y ago
The majority of developers are 0.1x or worse. It's Price's law. For every passionate and productive developer, there are 10 more who coast and do the bare minimum to not be fired. This has been true in every single organization I've been part of.
- octorian 7y ago
  And the majority of these have so little presence in places like this, that its easy to forget that they exist at all. Heck, when I joined my first large-team software development project at work, I was flabbergasted at how many "numb-nuts" there were. This is because the online world of armchair authorities pretended those people didn't even exist, and thus raised the bar so high that it made me believe I wasn't even worthy of owning a keyboard.
- Sosh101 7y ago
  If they are the majority, then surely they are the definition of 1x?
octorian 7y ago
I think whether someone is a 1x or 10x developer can depend a lot on what it is that they're working on. If its a codebase they're intimately familiar with, in an environment where they have a fair amount of experience, they can very easily be a 10x'er. Meanwhile, drop the exact same person into the middle of a large project they have little overall grasp of, and they instantly become a 1x'er. Sure, there is a level of innate ability. And there are plenty of people who will never seem to progress in productivity no matter how much time you give them. But beyond that, how good of a fit the project is for the person can play a huge part in where they fall on the scale.
TimTheTinker 7y ago
In my experience, the most productive teams are a mix of people with widely differing skills combined with good relationships, good communication, and a lot of mutual respect. I worked alongside a true 10x (or maybe even 100x) developer on my last job. It was astounding to watch his code changes on the order of 500-4000 lines (mostly front-end JS/TS/HTML/CSS) roll in day after day after day for years -- most of that being new code that implemented planned features and worked. He wasn't really a systems thinker, and he wasn't super big on abstraction, either. But we had 2 other developers who were extremely good at refactoring, abstracting, systems thinking, etc., as well as 4 rank-and-file devs who got their work done. We all filled in where others lacked, and it was an incredibly effective team. My point is, "10x developers" do not exist in a vacuum, and hiring people strictly for past productivity in a particular environment is fallacious. Instead, try to craft a "10x team" where each person brings something helpful to the table, everyone works hard because they want to, and there is an environment of supportiveness and great communication.

ses1984 7y ago

I knew two 10x developers at my previous job. One of them was humble and a great mentor and elevated everyone around him. One was a grump who made everyone around him feel stupid. Imo toxicity is independent from productivity.

justaguyhere 7y ago
Same experience. I learned quite a bit simply by sitting next to an exceptionally good and exceptionally nice developer who was at least a decade older than the rest of the team and enjoyed helping others. He rarely got stressed even in crunch times and that put rest of the team at ease.
- abyssin 7y ago
  The simple idea of this being possible, and picturing the scene in my head, gave me a lot of hope. I'm tired of the atmosphere of fear in the office, and I'm tired of how I participate in it.
joelbluminator 7y ago
We need to look at the role more broadly, being a developer isn't just churning out code. A lot of young talented guys just follow their passion and hack away abstraction after abstraction instead of trying to see what the product really needs. So you could say they're amazingly productive, or you could say they actually provided very little value. And a toxic wreck can't be productive by definition; if you demoralise everyone around you reduce productivity! The fact some people can get away with is a bug in hiring.
dagmx 7y ago
I’ll add that toxicity is not unique to 10x. Your last line covers that but many people tend to think 1x people are necessarily more humble by virtue of knowing their output relative to the team. (Assuming everyone believes in the 1x/10x thing) I’ve known plenty of mediocre devs who would be a 0.5x but thought they should be a 10x and made up the difference in unfounded confidence.
swader999 7y ago
The first type you mentioned is a rare gem that should be treasured.
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
There are plenty of 10x developers who are socially inept but do very well doing work by themselves, and then there are 10x managers who can deal with those devs well enough so they can work effectively enough in team environments. Unfortunately, good 10x managers are rarer than toxic 10x devs (and a real monster is a toxic 10x manager). There are also devs whose technical skills have outpaced their social skills temporarily, but they get better later...

joelbluminator 7y ago

Most companies don't need a "10x developer", especially if you're building yet another CRUD web app. You need good, hard working people who love the profession and are good working in a team. That's it. It doesn't take Einstein to do this job. Maybe if you're Shopify it makes sense to hire a few of the greatest Rails developers out there (which they did), but otherwise? This isn't rocket science.

pjc50 7y ago

I too have met "-1x" developers, but if someone like that persists then either they have political cover or they are very careful about who they show their bad side to. The worst case is if they were hired as a "10x" developer, at which point they can't be fired without their hiring manager admitting they made a mistake.

dagmx 7y ago
In some cases, it’s because the cost of letting them go and hiring+training another individual is daunting. Both monetarily and in time. You also don’t know if the new hire will necessarily be better. There’s also other factors like firing someone doesn’t necessarily get you back a headcount immediately. Visa caps also play into this because for certain roles we legitimately could not find enough candidates locally, so letting someone go means you couldn’t find someone till the following year. I’ve been in this situation where I’ve had to convince my managers that the teams I managed would be better served without certain individuals and I’d rather hire someone new. Even when the entire management chain agreed, it came down to the issues above.

swader999 7y ago

Any project or company that needs a hero to save the day is a warning sign. Approach with caution.

0xy 7y ago

The majority of developers are 0.1x or worse. It's Price's law. For every passionate and productive developer, there are 10 more who coast and do the bare minimum to not be fired. This has been true in every single organization I've been part of.

octorian 7y ago
And the majority of these have so little presence in places like this, that its easy to forget that they exist at all. Heck, when I joined my first large-team software development project at work, I was flabbergasted at how many "numb-nuts" there were. This is because the online world of armchair authorities pretended those people didn't even exist, and thus raised the bar so high that it made me believe I wasn't even worthy of owning a keyboard.
Sosh101 7y ago
If they are the majority, then surely they are the definition of 1x?

octorian 7y ago

I think whether someone is a 1x or 10x developer can depend a lot on what it is that they're working on. If its a codebase they're intimately familiar with, in an environment where they have a fair amount of experience, they can very easily be a 10x'er. Meanwhile, drop the exact same person into the middle of a large project they have little overall grasp of, and they instantly become a 1x'er. Sure, there is a level of innate ability. And there are plenty of people who will never seem to progress in productivity no matter how much time you give them. But beyond that, how good of a fit the project is for the person can play a huge part in where they fall on the scale.

TimTheTinker 7y ago

In my experience, the most productive teams are a mix of people with widely differing skills combined with good relationships, good communication, and a lot of mutual respect. I worked alongside a true 10x (or maybe even 100x) developer on my last job. It was astounding to watch his code changes on the order of 500-4000 lines (mostly front-end JS/TS/HTML/CSS) roll in day after day after day for years -- most of that being new code that implemented planned features and worked. He wasn't really a systems thinker, and he wasn't super big on abstraction, either. But we had 2 other developers who were extremely good at refactoring, abstracting, systems thinking, etc., as well as 4 rank-and-file devs who got their work done. We all filled in where others lacked, and it was an incredibly effective team. My point is, "10x developers" do not exist in a vacuum, and hiring people strictly for past productivity in a particular environment is fallacious. Instead, try to craft a "10x team" where each person brings something helpful to the table, everyone works hard because they want to, and there is an environment of supportiveness and great communication.