3 ms·

sigh. The 10x engineer has become tech's most toxic concepts and devs are its victims, yet we keep bringing it up constantly. Every time it's brought up it's a

sigh. The 10x engineer has become tech's most toxic concepts and devs are its victims, yet we keep bringing it up constantly. Every time it's brought up it's a new variation that's either bad or good but always different than the original proposal of the BEST programmers are 10x more productive than the WORST developers from a paper in 1968. All that is come of it is devs arguing about a hypothetical programmer is and made management even more insufferable. The idea is only hurting you, quit bringing it up, when it is brought up point out it's a bad concept and move on.

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
I thought so until I met one. He knew what our team lead wanted before he wanted it and would already have it done, along with all of his assigned work. He would take initiative and build tools that the whole team could use and be more effective with. He had a huge impact on me.
- jackblemming 4y ago
  That just sounds like a developer who had worked on a similar project before, which would obviously look like some kind of genius vs those starting from scratch.
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
    Negative. He came from working in startups to working in defense. The work could not have been any more different. He was initially unfamiliar with most of the tools and processes that we used.
- varjag 4y ago
  Seconded. I was lucky to work with one at my first job, which helped to calibrate expectations and set standards for myself.
justin_oaks 4y ago
To be fair, you're the one bringing up the 10x engineer. The article only mentions it for the sake of contrasting it with -10x engineers: "+10x engineers may be mythical, but -10x engineers exist." And that's all that was said about it. I agree that arguments for and against are tiring, so let's talk about the article instead! I've definitely seen engineers who have been net negative in productivity. They've distracted me from my work, introduced bugs that have had severe effects on the production environment, and have produced code that had to be thrown away and completely rewritten. Luckily, the items in the article aren't commonly seen all in one person, but they are great ways to lose productivity and negatively affect others in the company.
jackblemming 4y ago
The original paper was actually x27 developer or something crazy like that. I think Brooks recast it as the x10 developer because x27 was too unbelievable.
robocat 4y ago
-10x Engineer: Prevent 1 +10x manager from getting hired. Encourage doubt and confusion that one person can make a 10x difference. Jim Keller is a lizard. Great engineers are a myth. Play up to the worst cynical beliefs of management: all engineers are just wasteful bums on seats, then prove them right.
spoonfeeder006 4y ago
I don't know if a 10x is true or not, but its definitely not me I am slow as a snail

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago

I thought so until I met one. He knew what our team lead wanted before he wanted it and would already have it done, along with all of his assigned work. He would take initiative and build tools that the whole team could use and be more effective with. He had a huge impact on me.

jackblemming 4y ago
That just sounds like a developer who had worked on a similar project before, which would obviously look like some kind of genius vs those starting from scratch.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
  Negative. He came from working in startups to working in defense. The work could not have been any more different. He was initially unfamiliar with most of the tools and processes that we used.
varjag 4y ago
Seconded. I was lucky to work with one at my first job, which helped to calibrate expectations and set standards for myself.

justin_oaks 4y ago

To be fair, you're the one bringing up the 10x engineer. The article only mentions it for the sake of contrasting it with -10x engineers: "+10x engineers may be mythical, but -10x engineers exist." And that's all that was said about it. I agree that arguments for and against are tiring, so let's talk about the article instead! I've definitely seen engineers who have been net negative in productivity. They've distracted me from my work, introduced bugs that have had severe effects on the production environment, and have produced code that had to be thrown away and completely rewritten. Luckily, the items in the article aren't commonly seen all in one person, but they are great ways to lose productivity and negatively affect others in the company.

jackblemming 4y ago

The original paper was actually x27 developer or something crazy like that. I think Brooks recast it as the x10 developer because x27 was too unbelievable.

robocat 4y ago

-10x Engineer: Prevent 1 +10x manager from getting hired. Encourage doubt and confusion that one person can make a 10x difference. Jim Keller is a lizard. Great engineers are a myth. Play up to the worst cynical beliefs of management: all engineers are just wasteful bums on seats, then prove them right.

spoonfeeder006 4y ago

I don't know if a 10x is true or not, but its definitely not me I am slow as a snail