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Fabrice Bellard is proof that 10x programmers exist. Or even more than 10x; he single-handled wrote a software 4G LTE base station (https://bellard.org/lte/ htt
by logicchains 5y ago
Fabrice Bellard is proof that 10x programmers exist. Or even more than 10x; he single-handled wrote a software 4G LTE base station (https://bellard.org/lte/ https://bellard.org/lte/), something that would normally take a team of hundreds to develop due to the complexity of the specification.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- vanderZwan 5y agoHe's pretty much the programmer's John von Neumann of our time, isn't he? Or at least one of the few contenders for that title
- amelius 5y agoVon Neumann was more a mathematician/scientist than an engineer.
- vanderZwan 5y agoWell yes, but a 10x mathematician/scientist. Plus important enough to the field of computing to be comparable I think
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- yalok 5y agoTotally. Plus FFmpeg…
- logicchains 5y agoAnd QEMU...
- sugarkjube 5y agoAnd quickjs
- mercer 5y agoI love how FFmpeg is way down on his homepage. Meanwhile, even non-programmers in my world know and use it.
- Y_Y 5y agoI think hero-worship in any field is weird and unhealthy. That said, Bellard is astonishingly talented and prolific and it's hard to look at someone like that and say he's just a mortal who tries his best to write code, just like everyone else. So what is it that causes this big gulf in productivity? I know that as a programmer I have all sorts of internal and external obstacles to just sitting down and churning out entire projects, let alone something useful with clever and high-quality code. Is a 10x rockstar just somebody who's been able to eliminate most of their obstacles, and has some amount of talent left over to solve problems with?
- slim 5y agoWhy is hero-worship is unhealthy? I thought it's the contrary
- user-the-name 5y agoBecause it decreases self-confidence and initiative. It makes you think of the things that the "hero" does as exceptional and out of your reach, instead of something you could do as well if you put your mind to it properly.
- zaphirplane 5y agoInterestingly enough seeing powerful role models inspired schwarzenegger, bolt martial artists, poets, architects even Tom cruise inspired Air Force pilots
- opsy2 5y agoIt seems small, but it's a big distinction between hero worship and role model! 'Hero Worship' is about elevating someone to a categorically higher level. This can lead to thinking you could never be as good, taking everything they say as gospel, defending even their poor opinions, etc. If we -worship- 10x developers, you can maybe better see how with the emphasis on that word things can get pretty toxic pretty quick. For example, I think many would agree HR disputes should not take talent level as an input, but if one of those people isn't even a mortal... --- None of this is necessary to have a role model, or precludes celebrating someone for doing excellent work as is this case.
- sesm 5y agoDid he ever had a dayjob as a programmer? My bet is ‘no’
- av500 5y agohe did, at least a few years ago a former coworker worked with him in Paris at a French streaming provider or so
- willvarfar 5y agoFabrice is fantastic! There are other programmers at his level, or with the potential to be at his level, splattered all over the industry. Unfortunately, they ‘waste’ their time on their day job stuff, often having to do things badly because technical approaches are prescribed by others etc. Many of us meet truly great programmers, but so few of them actually demonstrate and express it. They just grin when asked to implement micro services and add some banal features to the website etc.