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> To me that means someone who is consistenly 10x better at everything on all projects always. That doesn't exist. At the far end of the distribution, they def

> To me that means someone who is consistenly 10x better at everything on all projects always. That doesn't exist. At the far end of the distribution, they definitely exist and some are like 100-1000x. I work with someone that can pick up a new language and be writing fluently in that languages’ idiomatic style in a weekend, delivering robust, scalable, concise code. He can learn a new domain and understand its nuances so quickly that he often becomes more fluent than the company ‘domain experts’ after just a few weeks’ of effort. And no… this isn’t shallow stuff. We’re talking domain experts with Ph.Ds in EE from MIT. He drives industry standards and has the patents/resume to show for it. The thing is… everything he touches turns to gold. From documentation to design, implementation, test code, infrastructure, maintenance… he does it all. I’ve worked with smart people (friends/former colleagues at various FAANG staff eng level people). This guy is next level compared to anyone else I’ve worked with.

ip26 4y ago
Now I am consumed with curiosity over this unnamed key contributor. It sounds like they underpin an entire industry.
jjav 4y ago
> He can learn a new domain and understand its nuances so quickly that he often becomes more fluent than the company ‘domain experts’ after just a few weeks’ of effort. And no… this isn’t shallow stuff. We’re talking domain experts with Ph.Ds in EE from MIT. I have to be very skeptical of this. If the person is so superhuman and famous, can you name them? Nobody gets to look at a new field and quickly become a domain expert with more knowledge than those who've dedicated their life (PhD, career) to the field. To be honest this sounds like a con artist good at talking themselves up.
- Jensson 4y ago
  He quoted the "domain expert" part, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean real domain experts, rather just the local programmer who happened to take most of the tickets related to that domain. For example, early in my career I worked at a small company. They had an "SQL expert", but I got better at SQL than him almost immediately since he wasn't really an SQL expert. I wouldn't call myself an SQL expert today either, its just that the "expert" didn't even know the basics or how to work with indexes properly, what types of queries are fast etc. So he wasn't an SQL expert, he was just the guy who did tickets related to SQL, and then managers starts calling him an "SQL expert" to make his team sound more competent. But if we take a real domain expert, for example a Math PHD, then not a single genius ever could learn enough to catch up within a weekend or two. Every genius in history in these domains has spent years learning them. I don't think anyone would claim to be able to do that in a weekend. But get better at SQL than a typical backend developer over a week? Yeah, I'd believe that. EDIT: Saw that the above comment mentioned PHD. Yeah, then it is a bit ridiculous, at least if he meant that the person learned the equivalent of an EE PHD over a weekend, that wont happen. Maybe the guy found some error in the works of the expert and people blew that out of proportion. I'm leaving the rest of the comment as is, but I agree with you, his story is a bit ridiculous if you take it at face value.
  - anonuser123456 4y ago
    It might sound ridiculous. But this guy is regarded as a super star by an IEEE fellow or two. And by domain expert, I mean people that sit on standards bodies in communications theory. This guy is out there on the tail end of the distribution.
    - soiler 4y ago
      So, you've dodged the question of who he is. How about the question of why his identity must be kept secret? It sounds like anyone anywhere near him would know who you're talking about anyway
- anonuser123456 4y ago
  I get the skepticism.

ip26 4y ago

Now I am consumed with curiosity over this unnamed key contributor. It sounds like they underpin an entire industry.

jjav 4y ago

> He can learn a new domain and understand its nuances so quickly that he often becomes more fluent than the company ‘domain experts’ after just a few weeks’ of effort. And no… this isn’t shallow stuff. We’re talking domain experts with Ph.Ds in EE from MIT. I have to be very skeptical of this. If the person is so superhuman and famous, can you name them? Nobody gets to look at a new field and quickly become a domain expert with more knowledge than those who've dedicated their life (PhD, career) to the field. To be honest this sounds like a con artist good at talking themselves up.

Jensson 4y ago
He quoted the "domain expert" part, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean real domain experts, rather just the local programmer who happened to take most of the tickets related to that domain. For example, early in my career I worked at a small company. They had an "SQL expert", but I got better at SQL than him almost immediately since he wasn't really an SQL expert. I wouldn't call myself an SQL expert today either, its just that the "expert" didn't even know the basics or how to work with indexes properly, what types of queries are fast etc. So he wasn't an SQL expert, he was just the guy who did tickets related to SQL, and then managers starts calling him an "SQL expert" to make his team sound more competent. But if we take a real domain expert, for example a Math PHD, then not a single genius ever could learn enough to catch up within a weekend or two. Every genius in history in these domains has spent years learning them. I don't think anyone would claim to be able to do that in a weekend. But get better at SQL than a typical backend developer over a week? Yeah, I'd believe that. EDIT: Saw that the above comment mentioned PHD. Yeah, then it is a bit ridiculous, at least if he meant that the person learned the equivalent of an EE PHD over a weekend, that wont happen. Maybe the guy found some error in the works of the expert and people blew that out of proportion. I'm leaving the rest of the comment as is, but I agree with you, his story is a bit ridiculous if you take it at face value.
- anonuser123456 4y ago
  It might sound ridiculous. But this guy is regarded as a super star by an IEEE fellow or two. And by domain expert, I mean people that sit on standards bodies in communications theory. This guy is out there on the tail end of the distribution.
  - soiler 4y ago
    So, you've dodged the question of who he is. How about the question of why his identity must be kept secret? It sounds like anyone anywhere near him would know who you're talking about anyway
anonuser123456 4y ago
I get the skepticism.