2 ms·

10x doesn't have to mean that they do particular/regular things in 1/10 the time (or even effort). In my experience the best way to be 10x is to on average/over

10x doesn't have to mean that they do particular/regular things in 1/10 the time (or even effort). In my experience the best way to be 10x is to on average/overall avoid wasting time on 9 out of 10 things that won't bear fruit or alternatively head in a direction that saves 9/10 future re-alignment work which no-one will know because it never presents itself. This can be applied at any level, so there could be 10x Senior Staff devs, idk may meet one some day. It probably does like you say to some extent mean that they should have a different title, but sometimes that title doesn't exist in a particular company.

sfpotter 4y ago
I also don’t get this. If there are so many developers wasting their time taking themselves up the garden path working on useless tasks, why isn’t management doing its job? Just seems weird to have this myth of the 10x developer when it’s clear that there’s no such thing: someone is either overqualified, or an organization just has really bad management.
- karmakaze 4y ago
  I wouldn't describe those 9/10 things as useless--only as a less effective path for finding something better. If the definition of 1x is average, then there's nothing wrong with that. I'm sure I've made lots of those 9/10 things during my career to get to where I am now. And now I try to share my thought processes and learnings to shorten the time it takes others to doing less of those 9/10 things as well as continue learning how to make better bets. I don't know why software development has to be clamped to less than an order of magnitude difference, or why there's such a stigma to it. In other areas like sports or chess/go etc, it's very clear that orders of magnitude exist and there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone can still play, enjoy, get better up to wherever they aspire and put effort into or physical limits allow--no shame.

sfpotter 4y ago

I also don’t get this. If there are so many developers wasting their time taking themselves up the garden path working on useless tasks, why isn’t management doing its job? Just seems weird to have this myth of the 10x developer when it’s clear that there’s no such thing: someone is either overqualified, or an organization just has really bad management.

karmakaze 4y ago
I wouldn't describe those 9/10 things as useless--only as a less effective path for finding something better. If the definition of 1x is average, then there's nothing wrong with that. I'm sure I've made lots of those 9/10 things during my career to get to where I am now. And now I try to share my thought processes and learnings to shorten the time it takes others to doing less of those 9/10 things as well as continue learning how to make better bets. I don't know why software development has to be clamped to less than an order of magnitude difference, or why there's such a stigma to it. In other areas like sports or chess/go etc, it's very clear that orders of magnitude exist and there's nothing wrong with that. Everyone can still play, enjoy, get better up to wherever they aspire and put effort into or physical limits allow--no shame.