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If you have never seen a 10x engineer you either have never worked with truly talented people or you haven’t worked on actual hard problems. There aren’t just

by tzone 4y ago

If you have never seen a 10x engineer you either have never worked with truly talented people or you haven’t worked on actual hard problems. There aren’t just 10 or 100x engineers , there are even infinityX engineers when you work on actual hard problems because some of those can only be solved by handful of people.

Aeolun 4y ago
> some of those can only be solved by handful of people Ultimately it can probably be solved by other people, but it’d take multiple years. I think the 10x is not so much because those engineers are particularly fast, it’s just that anyone else working in the domain is 10x slower. Like if I tried to build a compiler, I’d quickly become known as a 0.1x engineer.
zmj 4y ago
This reminds me of an old essay: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2005/07/25/hitting-the-high-notes/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2005/07/25/hitting-the-high-n... The thesis is that the "10x engineers" don't output a linear multiple of the same kind of work their peers do. Instead, they implement solutions that their peers wouldn't or couldn't over any length of time. This matches my experience.
- 29athrowaway 4y ago
  The 10x engineer identifies common subproblems across different problems, and then creates a layer of reusable code which becomes a library. Then uses this library to write code 10x faster. The 10x engineer tries to standardize problems and solve them en-masse. The 1x engineer sees every problem as a different problem that requires a different solution. The 10x engineer talks about abstractions, the 1x engineer talks about concrete implementations. The 10x engineer believes in investing in productivity. The 1x engineer wants a visible solution right now. The 1x engineer never has time because they're too busy making themselves less productive by owning more and more code to maintain. The 10x engineer is always looking for code to remove and refactor, and making the solution as small as possible. The 10x engineer will talk about programming language features and libraries that promote reusability, the 1x engineer only talks about tangible stuff. The 1x engineer talks about their car and weekend, the 10x engineer talks about technology.
  - tjr225 4y ago
    - 29athrowaway 4y ago
      - tjr225 4y ago
        Hah! My car is even older than that. But it is still far more interesting than useless saas apps. Nice try though.
        29athrowaway 4y ago
        tjr225 4y ago
        Well if you honestly find the pointless complicated code you write for whatever stupid pointless startup more interesting than cars I guess maybe I just think you’re a moron? Wasn’t that the point of my original post??? I bike and walk more than you do by the way. Actually come to think of it my van has appreciated! LOL!
        29athrowaway 4y ago
        spookthesunset 4y ago
        Because they are smart enough to realize they could make a shitload more money in their current occupation and treat their cycling as a hobby. Often times once you make your hobby turn into an job it no longer is fun. …maybe… never actually tested that theory personally so I don’t actually know if it is true.
- tacitusarc 4y ago
  It’s interesting how obvious this is for other domains. For example, imagine you are hiring for an orchestra, and are told just to increase the violin section by five to make up for the lack of good violinists.

by tzone 4y ago

Aeolun 4y ago

> some of those can only be solved by handful of people Ultimately it can probably be solved by other people, but it’d take multiple years. I think the 10x is not so much because those engineers are particularly fast, it’s just that anyone else working in the domain is 10x slower. Like if I tried to build a compiler, I’d quickly become known as a 0.1x engineer.

zmj 4y ago

This reminds me of an old essay: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2005/07/25/hitting-the-high-notes/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2005/07/25/hitting-the-high-n... The thesis is that the "10x engineers" don't output a linear multiple of the same kind of work their peers do. Instead, they implement solutions that their peers wouldn't or couldn't over any length of time. This matches my experience.

29athrowaway 4y ago
The 10x engineer identifies common subproblems across different problems, and then creates a layer of reusable code which becomes a library. Then uses this library to write code 10x faster. The 10x engineer tries to standardize problems and solve them en-masse. The 1x engineer sees every problem as a different problem that requires a different solution. The 10x engineer talks about abstractions, the 1x engineer talks about concrete implementations. The 10x engineer believes in investing in productivity. The 1x engineer wants a visible solution right now. The 1x engineer never has time because they're too busy making themselves less productive by owning more and more code to maintain. The 10x engineer is always looking for code to remove and refactor, and making the solution as small as possible. The 10x engineer will talk about programming language features and libraries that promote reusability, the 1x engineer only talks about tangible stuff. The 1x engineer talks about their car and weekend, the 10x engineer talks about technology.
- tjr225 4y ago
  - 29athrowaway 4y ago
    - tjr225 4y ago
      Hah! My car is even older than that. But it is still far more interesting than useless saas apps. Nice try though.
      - 29athrowaway 4y ago
        tjr225 4y ago
        Well if you honestly find the pointless complicated code you write for whatever stupid pointless startup more interesting than cars I guess maybe I just think you’re a moron? Wasn’t that the point of my original post??? I bike and walk more than you do by the way. Actually come to think of it my van has appreciated! LOL!
        29athrowaway 4y ago
        spookthesunset 4y ago
        Because they are smart enough to realize they could make a shitload more money in their current occupation and treat their cycling as a hobby. Often times once you make your hobby turn into an job it no longer is fun. …maybe… never actually tested that theory personally so I don’t actually know if it is true.
tacitusarc 4y ago
It’s interesting how obvious this is for other domains. For example, imagine you are hiring for an orchestra, and are told just to increase the violin section by five to make up for the lack of good violinists.