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10x engineer is the most atrocious bullshit I have heard about. It can be only said by people who are not developers. I don't believe there is a meaning behind
by mesaframe 6y ago
10x engineer is the most atrocious bullshit I have heard about. It can be only said by people who are not developers. I don't believe there is a meaning behind 10x programmer.
- sub7 6y agoOh they definitely exist. If you can manage the ego/personality issues that come with the package they can do to your company in 2-3 months what a team of 20 would take a year+ for.
- goatinaboat 6y agoIf you can manage the ego/personality issues that come with the package The only genuine 10x programmer I have ever met was the nicest, most humble guy you could imagine. He didn’t just crank out code, he saw patterns in things that no one else could until he pointed them out, and then it seemed obvious because he explained it so well. But I have met many 1.1x programmers who act like the worst stereotypes of a 10x, and when the dust settles and someone has to maintain their rockstar code they have the net effect of a 0.1x.
- Kluny 6y agoI don't know, the smartest programmers I've ever met have also been the most helpful ones, willing and able to explain incredibly complex concepts patiently and clearly.
- Kluny 6y agoI don't know, the smartest programmers I've ever met have also been the most helpful ones, willing and able to explain incredibly complex concepts patiently and clearly. They make everyone around them better.
- lovegoblin 6y ago> If you can manage the ego/personality issues Having to do so is a drag on everyone else's productivity. If it's bad enough, you'll end up also having to deal with a higher turnover - another productivity drag. Is all this a still a net gain?
- smilliken 6y agoWhat does 10x refer to? If it's the spread between min and max, then it's obviously true. If it's the spread between median and max, then it's easy to sympathize with it being true. The median startup has 0 or negative economic contribution. Similarly, there's a lot of programmers that create tech debt or low value, so 10x that isn't so outrageous. What about CEOs? Whats the difference between a median CEO and the best CEO ever? That's got to be way more than 10x.
- sokoloff 6y agoThere are almost certainly 0.0x to 0.1x programmers. What percentage of the people working as programmers are in that realm is subject to some debate, but I've absolutely worked with programmers whom I would put into the "obviously 10x more value-creating than the median" camp. (Some, but not all, were also abrasive personalities who didn't work well in teams.)
- aero- 6y agoHave any referrals? looking for a cto
- sokoloff 6y agoMy email is in my profile. I'm happy to make those referrals, but will note that most of them have landed in places that make them appropriately comfortable and engaged, so they're hard to dislodge (don't think I haven't tried every so often).
- isbvhodnvemrwvn 6y agoThere's also -1.0x programmers - those who make others leave or are just an overall burden on others
- Ekaros 6y agoI wonder if there is cap minus side... Maybe not local side, but on global...
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoI saw it all the time when I was consulting. I would visit a client with ten or twenty programmers and find that one or two of them did the bulk of the work.
- rriepe 6y agoThey do exist but it's a social thing, not a technical/skill thing. They get the big multiplier by making other team members more effective, not through their direct work efforts.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gjvc 6y agoThere are 10x and 0.1x outliers in every field.
- tehlike 6y agoIt depends. If you talk purely about coding throughput, I know quite a few. Ayende Rahien/Oren Eini being one. That guy does most complex shit you can imagine, and does it well and fast. If you talk about an 10x in any profession, You can see that in many walks of life, not just engineering. On many occasions, people find ways to do 10x impact with 1x work. It can be closing a large sales, it can be avoid doing 6 months of work by 50 people by pulling 5 people for 3 month and approaching the problem much differently. Or it can be acting as a force multiplier by building tools to do grunt work etc. So yes, 10x exists. even 50x probably possible to find, you need to stop thinking about 10x lines of code and start thinking about 10x impact. That can be your way to get to 10x.
- treeman79 6y agoI used to be one. I’ve also been a 1/10x programmer. Knowing and mastering your tool chain, language, editor infrastructure etc intimately; can have tremendous productivity gains. Having zero personal life also helps tremendously. Features and products just flow out of you. Personally I found having a family has many benefits, but I also lost that edge. Health issues also take away a lot. Kids getting old enough to not require constant attention is allowing me to regain some of that.
- spdionis 6y agoThis is the perfect summary. We can all be 10x for some period of our lives. The hard part is to not judge your coworkers when you're in that period.
- maxerickson 6y agoFluency.
- decafninja 6y agoThere was recently some attention about an Airbnb engineer in NYC that whipped together a covid vaccine reservation utility site in a day or two that put the official NY government site to shame. In the NY Times article about it, some of the reader comments was "NYC should hire this guy!" or "He should come work for the city!". To which people more familiar with SWEs replied "that will never happen, he probably makes several times what a government (or gov contracted) SWE makes, and that's why he can do this while the government team cannot."
- electrondood 6y agoI agree. The job is difficult enough without this ambiguous notion that you're supposed to be doing 10x the work or spend all of your free time shlepping code in order to be considered "good." Like "rock star" or "ninja," this concept needs to die.