I know exactly the type you you mean. Looping back to OP, this can create a lot of viscosity in the project. Your 10x engineer in one situation will grind to a

I know exactly the type you you mean. Looping back to OP, this can create a lot of viscosity in the project. Your 10x engineer in one situation will grind to a halt if they work with a few of these 0.1x engineers, if they have to interface with each other. The person that increases the compile times of the project to near infinity to save a runtime instruction with the C++ type system has an effect on the whole system. 10x IME is only possible if you have very fast feedback loops, that means fast unit tests, fast incremental compilation times. You can only be fast if you can iterate fast. And if you're working with enough people that slow down your feedback you'll get slower. I've seen it happen plenty of times. The situation aspect still holds. I think it's a combination of both. There are potential 10xers, but the environment needs to be right for them to flourish.