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> the 10x programmer is not a myth You are right that quality of programmer skill and productivity has high variance, but the way people talked about the "10x
by afarrell 6y ago
> the 10x programmer is not a myth
You are right that quality of programmer skill and productivity has high variance, but the way people talked about the "10x programmer" was a vague vision that people pasted their ideas and personal bugaboos onto. So people got into increasingly-heated arguments and talked past each other. When we create social concepts, we need to strive for something like falsifiability -- something that lets you look at an example and say "Well actually no, thats not 'high-performing programmer' behavior -- for {{describable reason}}"
Categories matter. We should shape our categories for human happiness and human effectiveness, but categories matter.
- entha_saava 6y agoTrue. That was a vague notion. I think Joel Spolsky's "Hitting the high notes" summarized it better.
- DonHopkins 6y agoIs less because there are a few 10x programmers, and more because there are a whole hell of a lot of 0.1x programmers.
- wwright 6y agoI think it's really not that some programmers do 10x more, but some people with the same job title do a different job. Some engineers take responsibility for product or for ecosystem; some engineers tick off tasks on a list. (Both can be very valid, and bleeding for product quality at a company is definitely not inherently good.)