I know an objectively measured 500x programmer. He is humble about it because he knows somebody >1000x, who wears out 2 keyboards per year (or did then). The s

I know an objectively measured 500x programmer. He is humble about it because he knows somebody >1000x, who wears out 2 keyboards per year (or did then). The setting was the early '90s. Siemens and Ericsson started a joint project, Ellemtel. Each assigned 500 engineers. It was a classic Death March: deliver in six months from the starting gun, or all is discarded and the parent companies don't get paid. After the project ended, on time, one totted up who coded what in the delivered product. Fully half was by this individual. Without him, delivery would not have happened. He assigned work units on two-week intervals. Any assignment not completed on time, he set aside and did by himself over the weekend. Something else interesting: they took blood samples and measured stress hormone levels. A year later, levels had not returned to previous baseline. But Mr 500x's level did not go up.