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If by 10x, you mean engineers that add 10x more value compared to an average engineer in the team, then from working 10+ years in the industry, it is abundantly

If by 10x, you mean engineers that add 10x more value compared to an average engineer in the team, then from working 10+ years in the industry, it is abundantly clear to me that 10x programmers exist, and a good team is likely to have 5-10% of those. However, these engineers are rare, and when you do find them, they are not perfect. They might have flaws in other areas - communication and teamwork is a common one. Most of these anti-10x engineer posts either assume a different meaning of 10x engineer or are unable to accept that engineering is a skill just like every other skill, there are masters and not every one can be a master. Every person cannot be a great engineer. Every engineer in your company/team does not need to be a master. But you need a few of them to be successful if software engineering is critical for your product.

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tester756 4y ago
I don't really like to write it, but it also works both ways - there are also "-10x" programmers, they peak in a opposite way It's a mix of chaotic tech skills, approach to technology, terrible communication and ego.
ratww 4y ago
I find these stereotypes very reductive, and having a bit of prejudice. Being unproductive is not a guarantee of having good communication skills, and likewise being being highly-productive is not a guarantee of being bad at communication. If communication is part of the job, in the case of seniors mentoring juniors, for example, then lack of communication skills would definitely prevent someone from being a "10x".
- raz32dust 4y ago
  Didn't mean to discount communication issues. They are definitely a blocker for growth and impact. The best engineers I worked with had these issues, but worked on them and improved over time to increase their impact.
- Sodman 4y ago
  I think a big contributor to this "Brilliant asshole" trope is that if you ignore some things like teamwork/communication it's a lot easier to appear to be doing 10x the work. This can manifest in so many ways... Not doing any code reviews? Leaving tests "for somebody else to write"? Refusing to work on legacy code-bases and only working on greenfield projects? Tuning out (or just not even joining) API design meetings so you can work on your own stuff? Bonus points if you have the authority to turn around in a few weeks and make folks re-write the API because you don't like the decisions you ignored - those pesky 1x engineers, eh? There's a bunch of things that fit into this category that can make an engineer seem like they're doing 10x the work, but if you look closer it's frequently only because they're taking shortcuts or pushing more work onto their colleagues. To be clear - I'm not saying 10x engineers don't exist, just that folks with "teamwork issues" who appear to output 10x as many features are frequently not as productive as they seem.
  - ratww 4y ago
    Yeah, this is similar to the "10x, but they work twice as many hours a week". It's not someone who's more productive, it's just someone who manages to be more productive by making everyone less.
twobitshifter 4y ago
I somewhat agree, lurking in this post is a strawman of a 10x programmer, who demonstrates negative qualities, but that might not be who a 10x programmer really is, or someone else’s own definition of a 10x programmer. I still bookmarked the post because after stripping away the negative 10x stuff there is good material on how to be a quality team member.
torginus 4y ago
The thing about communication skills, how eager would you be to communicate with others if you knew in the time it took you to explain the problem to someone else, them allocating time to do it, doing it, then reviewing the results, and fixing the issues, you could do it twice over? Some coworkers are like that unfortunately.
- omnimus 4y ago
  Person good at communicating would understand and navigate this situation and then figure out what to communicate for overall efficient solution. Communication goes both ways. People who think they are so above that its easier to wave off others are more often than not missing different parts of the picture.

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tester756 4y ago

I don't really like to write it, but it also works both ways - there are also "-10x" programmers, they peak in a opposite way It's a mix of chaotic tech skills, approach to technology, terrible communication and ego.

ratww 4y ago

I find these stereotypes very reductive, and having a bit of prejudice. Being unproductive is not a guarantee of having good communication skills, and likewise being being highly-productive is not a guarantee of being bad at communication. If communication is part of the job, in the case of seniors mentoring juniors, for example, then lack of communication skills would definitely prevent someone from being a "10x".

raz32dust 4y ago
Didn't mean to discount communication issues. They are definitely a blocker for growth and impact. The best engineers I worked with had these issues, but worked on them and improved over time to increase their impact.
Sodman 4y ago
I think a big contributor to this "Brilliant asshole" trope is that if you ignore some things like teamwork/communication it's a lot easier to appear to be doing 10x the work. This can manifest in so many ways... Not doing any code reviews? Leaving tests "for somebody else to write"? Refusing to work on legacy code-bases and only working on greenfield projects? Tuning out (or just not even joining) API design meetings so you can work on your own stuff? Bonus points if you have the authority to turn around in a few weeks and make folks re-write the API because you don't like the decisions you ignored - those pesky 1x engineers, eh? There's a bunch of things that fit into this category that can make an engineer seem like they're doing 10x the work, but if you look closer it's frequently only because they're taking shortcuts or pushing more work onto their colleagues. To be clear - I'm not saying 10x engineers don't exist, just that folks with "teamwork issues" who appear to output 10x as many features are frequently not as productive as they seem.
- ratww 4y ago
  Yeah, this is similar to the "10x, but they work twice as many hours a week". It's not someone who's more productive, it's just someone who manages to be more productive by making everyone less.

twobitshifter 4y ago

I somewhat agree, lurking in this post is a strawman of a 10x programmer, who demonstrates negative qualities, but that might not be who a 10x programmer really is, or someone else’s own definition of a 10x programmer. I still bookmarked the post because after stripping away the negative 10x stuff there is good material on how to be a quality team member.

torginus 4y ago

The thing about communication skills, how eager would you be to communicate with others if you knew in the time it took you to explain the problem to someone else, them allocating time to do it, doing it, then reviewing the results, and fixing the issues, you could do it twice over? Some coworkers are like that unfortunately.

omnimus 4y ago
Person good at communicating would understand and navigate this situation and then figure out what to communicate for overall efficient solution. Communication goes both ways. People who think they are so above that its easier to wave off others are more often than not missing different parts of the picture.