I think the fundamental issue with 10x is that a lot of people simply never met one. These guys tend to fly under the radar quite a bit. If you are in a tier 2

I think the fundamental issue with 10x is that a lot of people simply never met one. These guys tend to fly under the radar quite a bit. If you are in a tier 2 market or company, your chances of attracting one are close to nil. Because they are extremely valuable, they don't interview a lot and tend to hop between companies where they know people (or get fast tracked internally). I remember someone laughing at the idea of 10x programmers. I asked him where he hired from and what's the compensation like. Turns out two high performers I had recently hired were from the same college he was trying to hire from. Of course, he had no chances of attracting anyone since my offer was ~3x what he was offering!