3 ms·

The worst engineers provide negative value, the metaphorical guys rowing the wrong way. Certainly some managers have experienced this.

by Veuxdo 4y ago

jmillikin 4y ago
The study that produced the "10x engineer" finding was not about an abstract sort of business value, it was about programming. The claim that 10x engineers exist is: Given a group of programmers who are capable of planning and executing some project, the most effective member will be approximately 10x "better" (at speed / correctness) than the least effective member. I've been on both ends of that 10x, but have never experienced a situation where all the programmers were approximately the same. There's always someone who is clearly more capable, and someone who is not.
- Nomentatus 4y ago
  Hmmm. I'm gonna agree the slow way. I take it you are not referring to lines written/hour but, lines of code that survive; or time to working code that meets set goals, and maybe ten percent of the vicious, business-killing bugs. But then again, maybe the mediocre guys spend a whole lot of time looking for code that they can cut, paste and modify. That certainly used to happen with hardware circuits. Given that most large projects don't make it to the finish line, someone who has consistently pushed projects over the finish line looks like an outlier to me. If your 10x gal (or guy) can choose a far better algorithm, that's not just 10x; that's maybe clear success vs total failure. (So you'll be dividing by zero if you want a ratio, there.) To switch to the military context, it's funny how all the people I know who don't think there are any 10x Generals also firmly believe there are minus 10x Generals. Maybe even lots of them. And can somehow maintain both those beliefs at the same time. Both history and personal experience (not as a general) tells me that true competence is difficult to achieve and that most people are far too lazy to get there, or have personalities that block them. Everybody thinks the have an above-average sense of humor and are amongst the best drivers, but they know that they aren't 10x for humor and driving. Maybe, to maintain their illusion, they have to say there are no 10x ers, cause then they don't look above average anymore.

The worst engineers provide negative value, the metaphorical guys rowing the wrong way. Certainly some managers have experienced this.

by Veuxdo 4y ago

The worst engineers provide negative value, the metaphorical guys rowing the wrong way. Certainly some managers have experienced this.

jmillikin 4y ago

The study that produced the "10x engineer" finding was not about an abstract sort of business value, it was about programming. The claim that 10x engineers exist is: Given a group of programmers who are capable of planning and executing some project, the most effective member will be approximately 10x "better" (at speed / correctness) than the least effective member. I've been on both ends of that 10x, but have never experienced a situation where all the programmers were approximately the same. There's always someone who is clearly more capable, and someone who is not.

Nomentatus 4y ago
Hmmm. I'm gonna agree the slow way. I take it you are not referring to lines written/hour but, lines of code that survive; or time to working code that meets set goals, and maybe ten percent of the vicious, business-killing bugs. But then again, maybe the mediocre guys spend a whole lot of time looking for code that they can cut, paste and modify. That certainly used to happen with hardware circuits. Given that most large projects don't make it to the finish line, someone who has consistently pushed projects over the finish line looks like an outlier to me. If your 10x gal (or guy) can choose a far better algorithm, that's not just 10x; that's maybe clear success vs total failure. (So you'll be dividing by zero if you want a ratio, there.) To switch to the military context, it's funny how all the people I know who don't think there are any 10x Generals also firmly believe there are minus 10x Generals. Maybe even lots of them. And can somehow maintain both those beliefs at the same time. Both history and personal experience (not as a general) tells me that true competence is difficult to achieve and that most people are far too lazy to get there, or have personalities that block them. Everybody thinks the have an above-average sense of humor and are amongst the best drivers, but they know that they aren't 10x for humor and driving. Maybe, to maintain their illusion, they have to say there are no 10x ers, cause then they don't look above average anymore.