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> Today it would probably be a PowerPoint presentation, but the point stands: Expert has been an overused and overloaded term for far longer than 10x, and other

> Today it would probably be a PowerPoint presentation, but the point stands: Expert has been an overused and overloaded term for far longer than 10x, and other than specifying a focus ("video encoding expert" or similar) it is insufficient to actually communicate to non-technical people the distinction. This blend of highly dismissive comments on expertise and the volume of work it takes to achieve it is starting to become a cliche in software development circles, similar in tone to the denigrating comments regarding roles such as system architects. Expertise is domain knowledge supported with real world experience. It's not fancy slideshows. The video compression specialist outperforms you in every way because he's been studying the problem domain, researching the problem, implementing solutions, and analysing the results. And meanwhile you barely know what's a ffmpeg. Some developers think too highly of themselves to the point they feel they can parachute into a problem and talk down anyone around them, including experts and specialists. And this shows in the code, and unfortunately in team dynamics.

SomeCallMeTim 4y ago
> other than specifying a focus ("video encoding expert" or similar) I am not making a dismissive comment here. I'm saying that expert is only useful for saying things like "video encoding expert". And that a "video encoding expert" may be great in a very narrow way only involving the math surrounding video encoding, or may be a 10x developer in addition, but the "expert" label is orthogonal. I'm certainly not going to pretend to be a video encoding expert in the sense of working on the encoding code at least. I've actually worked on projects that have used video encoding multiple times, and in that sense, yes, I did just "drop in and become an expert," in some cases learning ffmpeg on the fly and in other cases integrating C libraries and dealing with frame buffers. And that is what a 10x developer can do. I don't feel the need to "talk down" to anyone, though, but if an expert makes a claim I will expect them to be able to talk intelligently about it and defend it if it seems wrong.

SomeCallMeTim 4y ago

> other than specifying a focus ("video encoding expert" or similar) I am not making a dismissive comment here. I'm saying that expert is only useful for saying things like "video encoding expert". And that a "video encoding expert" may be great in a very narrow way only involving the math surrounding video encoding, or may be a 10x developer in addition, but the "expert" label is orthogonal. I'm certainly not going to pretend to be a video encoding expert in the sense of working on the encoding code at least. I've actually worked on projects that have used video encoding multiple times, and in that sense, yes, I did just "drop in and become an expert," in some cases learning ffmpeg on the fly and in other cases integrating C libraries and dealing with frame buffers. And that is what a 10x developer can do. I don't feel the need to "talk down" to anyone, though, but if an expert makes a claim I will expect them to be able to talk intelligently about it and defend it if it seems wrong.