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They caveat it with “well defined programming problem.” That’s the myth. In my 30 years I’ve both been the 10x and managed 10x programmers. Their skill isn’t

They caveat it with “well defined programming problem.” That’s the myth. In my 30 years I’ve both been the 10x and managed 10x programmers. Their skill isn’t in programming, it’s in reducing ambiguity rapidly and advancing efforts through complexity rapidly. It’s in taking the initiative and in developing a depth and breadth in what “Right” looks like and knowing how to achieve it. It’s in having mastered not the ability to write code, but to read other peoples code and improve on it rapidly. It’s the ability to spot a defect or bug and know the solution instantly for a normal bug, and know how to successfully debug an extraordinarily difficult bug. Saying these people don’t exist is absurd. Saying that in any practical sense our career is solving “well defined programming problems” is doubly so. Edit: I’ll also add, 10x programmers don’t make everyone else less valuable on the team. First, they make everyone on the team more valuable. But there’s also an incredible importance in being able to take a direction and methodically work it to conclusion. These are the workhorse programmers. You only need one 10x programmer. Their force multiplication doesn’t work on each other. They also can’t do everything alone. So while they’re valuable, they’re not valuable without the team around them. And in my experience they can’t stand not having a team around them. Part of their ability is their empathy for their peers and their internal necessity to help people solve their problems faster.

acedTrex 4y ago
Ya i think this comment nails what i consider to be a 10x programmer. They aren't people who solve things quickly. They are people that solve things quickly and also enable their team to solve things quickly. They feel a need to not only be efficient themselves but enhance the efficiency of their teammates through mentorship, teaching and team awareness/empathy.
thrashh 4y ago
10x programmers are like living reference books They Know Their Shit. They won't remember details necessarily off their head but they don't need to look up notes. When you talk to them, it's like they just pulled up the Complete Lego Block Reference in their head and are snapping the pieces together. They can't tell you the exact size of a piece but they have a hunch that some piece A probably exists that probably snaps to a B piece to deliver what you need.
- fnordpiglet 4y ago
  I think it’s more than being a reference book, but really understanding at an intuitive level how things work and being able to explain it. They are facile with the concepts to such a degree they don’t have to think about how things fit together to use a system and language and sdlc, they are able to just focus on the specific challenge. Further they can unblock everyone around them by providing that intuition on demand, and often explaining concepts others struggle with in a way that gives them a similar intuition.
oxfordmale 4y ago
The 10x programmer doesn't exist. Yes, an experienced programmer can complete a well defined coding exercise, in their field of expertise, ten or more times faster than other programmers. There is research to back up this claim. However, in the real world software engineering is hardly ever just about programming. As a permanent employee there is a lot of time sink in attending meetings, town halls, compliance training, performance reviews and just generally sucking up to management to ensure you get the promotion you want. "Ten times programmers" often heavily rely on their team to be able to be this efficient. The worst ones rely on their team to fix their hacky codebase as they move on to a new project.
- ericb 4y ago
  That's just not true! There are 10x programmers, and even higher. On certain tasks you won't see the difference at all. Are you John Carmack-good? I'm not. Let's be big enough to admit it! Think of it like Opera. The average singer can't hit the high notes, and no matter how much time they are given, they may never. If you just need to sing happy birthday everyday, the average and amazing singers might seem equivalent. They're not, though.
  - oxfordmale 4y ago
    There only a few John Carmack and Linus Torvalds in the world, just as there only a limited number of opera singers compared to regular singers. The suggestion is that 10 times programmers are much more common than that. This is a more modern scientific article dispelling the myth of a 10 times developer https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8804291 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8804291
- whynaut 4y ago
  Literally the third sentence says > Their skill isn’t in programming, it’s in reducing ambiguity rapidly and advancing efforts through complexity rapidly You should make a top-level comment if you plan on ignoring context.
  - oxfordmale 4y ago
hot_gril 4y ago
I think there are even people who are 10X as fast as others at solving well-defined programming problems, aka grunt work. Those who sit down and grind through it with a highly optimized workflow and don't take many breaks.
graymatters 4y ago
Yup. Concur almost entirely. It’s superb abilities in complexity management. Which is what real software engineering is all about. Like management or raising kids, everyone think they can do it. Very few can do it really well.
- noloblo 4y ago
  Concurrency parallelism fp help with managing complexity

acedTrex 4y ago

Ya i think this comment nails what i consider to be a 10x programmer. They aren't people who solve things quickly. They are people that solve things quickly and also enable their team to solve things quickly. They feel a need to not only be efficient themselves but enhance the efficiency of their teammates through mentorship, teaching and team awareness/empathy.

thrashh 4y ago

10x programmers are like living reference books They Know Their Shit. They won't remember details necessarily off their head but they don't need to look up notes. When you talk to them, it's like they just pulled up the Complete Lego Block Reference in their head and are snapping the pieces together. They can't tell you the exact size of a piece but they have a hunch that some piece A probably exists that probably snaps to a B piece to deliver what you need.

fnordpiglet 4y ago
I think it’s more than being a reference book, but really understanding at an intuitive level how things work and being able to explain it. They are facile with the concepts to such a degree they don’t have to think about how things fit together to use a system and language and sdlc, they are able to just focus on the specific challenge. Further they can unblock everyone around them by providing that intuition on demand, and often explaining concepts others struggle with in a way that gives them a similar intuition.

oxfordmale 4y ago

The 10x programmer doesn't exist. Yes, an experienced programmer can complete a well defined coding exercise, in their field of expertise, ten or more times faster than other programmers. There is research to back up this claim. However, in the real world software engineering is hardly ever just about programming. As a permanent employee there is a lot of time sink in attending meetings, town halls, compliance training, performance reviews and just generally sucking up to management to ensure you get the promotion you want. "Ten times programmers" often heavily rely on their team to be able to be this efficient. The worst ones rely on their team to fix their hacky codebase as they move on to a new project.

ericb 4y ago
That's just not true! There are 10x programmers, and even higher. On certain tasks you won't see the difference at all. Are you John Carmack-good? I'm not. Let's be big enough to admit it! Think of it like Opera. The average singer can't hit the high notes, and no matter how much time they are given, they may never. If you just need to sing happy birthday everyday, the average and amazing singers might seem equivalent. They're not, though.
- oxfordmale 4y ago
  There only a few John Carmack and Linus Torvalds in the world, just as there only a limited number of opera singers compared to regular singers. The suggestion is that 10 times programmers are much more common than that. This is a more modern scientific article dispelling the myth of a 10 times developer https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8804291 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8804291
whynaut 4y ago
Literally the third sentence says > Their skill isn’t in programming, it’s in reducing ambiguity rapidly and advancing efforts through complexity rapidly You should make a top-level comment if you plan on ignoring context.
- oxfordmale 4y ago

hot_gril 4y ago

I think there are even people who are 10X as fast as others at solving well-defined programming problems, aka grunt work. Those who sit down and grind through it with a highly optimized workflow and don't take many breaks.

graymatters 4y ago

Yup. Concur almost entirely. It’s superb abilities in complexity management. Which is what real software engineering is all about. Like management or raising kids, everyone think they can do it. Very few can do it really well.

noloblo 4y ago
Concurrency parallelism fp help with managing complexity