I feel like the article is describing an anti-social (please don’t confuse this with introvert, or shy) developer. Pathologically, their behavior is dysfunction

I feel like the article is describing an anti-social (please don’t confuse this with introvert, or shy) developer. Pathologically, their behavior is dysfunctional (I’m avoiding the overuse of the word toxic since it has major pejorative implications on ones character). Dysfunction can be rehabbed, and often a symptom of ongoing bad habits and insecurity. The one implied aspect of the 10x engineer that the article doesn’t address explicitly is productivity. I sincerely believe most 10x engineers arise from a situation where they wrote all of the initial code. This is an advantage that can make it difficult for any other engineer to appear within reach of the ‘10x’ engineer, especially if the initial architecture was convoluted. These ‘10x’ engineers usually compensate by being highly available and protective of the architecture. How the latter manifests (guardianship of the codebase) can be related to where they are on the anti-social spectrum. Hiring juniors that can’t assess the true nature of the codebase is common. To the article’s point, some of the symptoms the ‘10x’ engineers exhibit are negative. The question is, why? The root cause of it simply can’t be ‘secret genius that has character flaws, like all other secret geniuses’ - that’s a caricature. I would hammer home that the symptoms are by-products of a process that allowed such a situation to occur. Word to the wise, don’t create a ‘10x’ engineer in your company by propping them up and giving full ownership, and consequently, the subsequent task of maintaining the defense of the shoddy situation. It’s unhealthy for everyone involved.