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I'm convinced the 10x engineer doesn't exist. It's not that the 10x engineer is a myth - it's a fallacy. You'll find that people in the same profession (any p
by headmelted 4y ago
I'm convinced the 10x engineer doesn't exist.
It's not that the 10x engineer is a myth - it's a fallacy. You'll find that people in the same profession (any profession) will have variance in their abilities and their return to a project, but it's a big leap to assume that someone that appears to perform much better than their peers is actually doing so in any objective sense.
The 10x engineer is more likely than not the person most familiar with the project and the codebase, knows the real reason why Mark didn't just put everything on Kubernetes or why Tanya didn't want to switch from React to Vue before leaving the team.
Or.. it's an engineer that has the ear and the faith of higher-ups in the organisation to deliver results because they're good at convincingly taking credit for them.
Generally I find that 10x engineer on here means "knows more than most about [tech stack X]" and can work quickly. That's cool if all other things are equal, but I've had to clean up more than a couple of catastrophic messes left in the wake of people that worked quickly.
Just to pre-empt someone telling me I must never have met a real 10x engineer or some other such dismissive response - I'm an average fish in an average pond. I've had people tell me how good I am in the past, both reports and managers, and have in both cases corrected them politely that I've just had more time with the problem/project/codebase than others have.
Anytime I hear someone talk about 10X engineers, let alone describing themselves as that, all it makes me think is that there's a failure of humility.
None of this belittles Fabrice Bellard. Or John Carmack. Or Chris Lattner. Or [known and respected programmer]. Their achievements speak for themselves.
You could give names of people in the field all day. There's a lot of us around. How many of the self-described or colleague-described "10X engineers" floating around are Linus Torvalds?
- glimshe 4y agoI've managed many "10x" engineers. They do exist. These engineers I'm thinking about not only are amazingly productive but solve problems average engineers can't solve no matter how much time you give them. Their solutions are elegant, performant and survive design changes. Their code is easier to maintain. Paying 2x the average to these people is a steal,as they are a LOT better than that. Not sure how much, but I'd rather have one of them on my team than 3 average engineers (probably more). I'm not saying average engineers aren't useful workers. They are, they get things done if they aren't incompetent. But they are nowhere near a 10x engineer. 10x engineers aren't perfect. But they are amazing nonetheless. If you have never worked with one, maybe it's because you had bad luck, haven't been around long enough or haven't worked in great teams. Whatever the reason,once you meet a 10x, you will know it.
- headmelted 4y ago> Just to pre-empt someone telling me I must never have met a real 10x engineer That should save us some time. > Whatever the reason,once you meet a 10x, you will know it. Guess not.
- ColinWright 4y agoSo let's see if I have this right. * You've never met a 10x engineer, and you can reason clearly and cogently as to why they don't exist, so you conclude that they don't exist; * Someone ... indeed, several someones ... tell you they they have met, worked with, and/or managed people who really are 10x engineers; * You say that these people must be wrong. This feels a lot like the biologists who wrote - convincingly - that kangaroos can't exist. They'd never seen one, and gave completely water-tight arguments that the method of locomotion was inherently impossible.
- clpm4j 4y agoI think it might be more apt to say that there are "10x employees" because it doesn't just apply to engineers. A small minority of people are just freakishly good at what they do (whatever that might be).
- UmbertoNoEco 4y agoWhy a mythical guy like that would choose to be managed by a "lowly" 1X?
- pindab0ter 4y agoWhy does it have to be ‘mythical’ and ‘lowly’ and why should that matter? Managing is a different role than engineering, even though there can be overlap.
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- djtriptych 4y agoI always thought the 10x came not just from superior skill, but from the particular instinct and ability to write small programs that help you write big programs. This computer-aided leap in output actually does separate software engineering from every other discipline except things like pure math.
- headmelted 4y agoThis I can actually get on board with - but wouldn’t you agree that this would really just fall under “good engineering?” The use of specialist tools to increase output happens in hundreds of other careers and I’m sure it just falls under learned knowledge of the craft.
- djtriptych 4y agogood engineering... sure. But I'm not sure there are any other disciplines where a single person does it regularly. I think the difference is we're not dealing with anything physical. A structural engineer never has the leeway to invent new ways to build bridges while under deadline. Maybe some ingenuity and process improvement along the way, but nothing like 10x on any single project.
- masterof0 4y agoI agree, is a complete fallacy, 10x engineers spend 10x the time solving whatever problem they have. People often confused domain knowledge(gotten through spending time on it, while other were having kids, dinners, you know, ... a life) with genius or exceptionalism.
- mbrodersen 4y agoNope. Not at all. It sounds as if you have never worked with a 10x developer. I have. More than once. They simply are better than all the rest. If that makes you angry then ask yourself why that is? There are 10x performers in any field. Think sports, business, politics etc. So why not software?
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago> The 10x engineer is more likely than not the person most familiar with the project and the codebase, Nope. To whatever extent they actually exist, the 10x engineer is the one who starts without a codebase, and creates one that is elegant, flexible, extensible and performant, avoiding mistakes and working faster than most of their peers would. They build a platform for their successors to work with that enables more than it impedes. If you've never seen this, then fine, but that's most likely because you've not been around during the prehistory phase of a given codebase.
- headmelted 4y agoI’ve absolutely worked on projects like this, but I would suggest that how clean or well designed the codebase is really isn’t put to the test until the creator leaves and others need to maintain, which is usually when the groans and eyerolls start if they are going to happen.