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This “Type-A” hustle mentality resonates with me. I do see lots of people pushing back on it, ie ridiculing JD’s that mention passion, emphasizing work-life bal

This “Type-A” hustle mentality resonates with me. I do see lots of people pushing back on it, ie ridiculing JD’s that mention passion, emphasizing work-life balance, disdain for “brogrammer” culture, etc. This seems especially prevalent on Twitter. My personal life doesn’t allow me to do marathons. If I was single I would probably be hauling ass all day every day. I understand the health implications, but the desire to be “the best” or to be “10x” clouds my long-term vision. I want to dominate like rms, Carmack, Beej, Eich, etc. That might put some people off, but technically, those same critics are my competition. If you don’t want to put in the same hours as me, that’s cool, but there aren’t an infinite amount of $200k+ roles in the world.

0xFACEFEED 5y ago
I've always thought of brute force work (like marathons) as compensation for not being as gifted as rms, Carmack, etc.
- nefitty 5y ago
  Yes! Unfortunately I was not born with Vitalik Buterin’s innate genius, so I understand I have to move myself forward more mechanically.
- meheleventyone 5y ago
  Also part of the domination of those characters is simply being around early enough to get famous. There are loads of people as gifted if not more so who will never see the limelight particularly these days where so many people are working on personal brand building or straight up grifting. Depending on your own goals brute force or giftedness might not even be necessary let alone sufficient. Particularly when it comes to external validation.
lanstin 5y ago
So to be clear, the myth of the 10x programmer is the person that learns Japanese when you start working with Japan as a market, sits around a lot talking about various types of teas, has an eidetic memory, has 3 months to write a major new service, and just thinks about it for like 2.5 months then comes in and types it in, in 30 hours. Not some well meaning person that makes up for a lack of skill by longer hours. Typing the wrong code in at 10 pm is harming the whole company. Hardworking and well-meaning programmers typing out a lot of code can be a disaster. The myth is "Much better the smart but lazy genius who thinks till the right solution is intuitively obvious." Now I've know a few people like that, but in general it is a myth. But at least get the right myth. Long hours are not part of 10x myth. I mean unless you mean loves math/computer/etc. and is always learning weird complicated stuff. But that's "taking care of your mental flexibility and strength" not "working long hours to meet a deadline."
- nefitty 5y ago
  My understanding of 10x was basically a programmer who is 10x more productive than the average. I assumed the myth was dependent on the output, not necessarily the process...
  - lanstin 5y ago
    If we accept it was a myth based on reality, the people that came closest to being that way were often more creative mad genuises that would have incredibly productive months or seasons, and within that top days or weeks, and then more ordinary times. Not plodding out 1 Kloc a day by just bearing down more but sitting around and joking and chatting about stuff then making some blazing new cathedral of technology that changed the game for all the programmers. I am thinking of the hyper growth days at AOL, so take it as one story.

0xFACEFEED 5y ago

I've always thought of brute force work (like marathons) as compensation for not being as gifted as rms, Carmack, etc.

nefitty 5y ago
Yes! Unfortunately I was not born with Vitalik Buterin’s innate genius, so I understand I have to move myself forward more mechanically.
meheleventyone 5y ago
Also part of the domination of those characters is simply being around early enough to get famous. There are loads of people as gifted if not more so who will never see the limelight particularly these days where so many people are working on personal brand building or straight up grifting. Depending on your own goals brute force or giftedness might not even be necessary let alone sufficient. Particularly when it comes to external validation.

lanstin 5y ago

So to be clear, the myth of the 10x programmer is the person that learns Japanese when you start working with Japan as a market, sits around a lot talking about various types of teas, has an eidetic memory, has 3 months to write a major new service, and just thinks about it for like 2.5 months then comes in and types it in, in 30 hours. Not some well meaning person that makes up for a lack of skill by longer hours. Typing the wrong code in at 10 pm is harming the whole company. Hardworking and well-meaning programmers typing out a lot of code can be a disaster. The myth is "Much better the smart but lazy genius who thinks till the right solution is intuitively obvious." Now I've know a few people like that, but in general it is a myth. But at least get the right myth. Long hours are not part of 10x myth. I mean unless you mean loves math/computer/etc. and is always learning weird complicated stuff. But that's "taking care of your mental flexibility and strength" not "working long hours to meet a deadline."

nefitty 5y ago
My understanding of 10x was basically a programmer who is 10x more productive than the average. I assumed the myth was dependent on the output, not necessarily the process...
- lanstin 5y ago
  If we accept it was a myth based on reality, the people that came closest to being that way were often more creative mad genuises that would have incredibly productive months or seasons, and within that top days or weeks, and then more ordinary times. Not plodding out 1 Kloc a day by just bearing down more but sitting around and joking and chatting about stuff then making some blazing new cathedral of technology that changed the game for all the programmers. I am thinking of the hyper growth days at AOL, so take it as one story.