4 ms·

The 10x developer makes their whole team better

38 points by kungfudoi 2y ago

akasakahakada 2y ago
> Instead of an engineer who’s an order of magnitude “better” than their peers, leaders should look for people who are willing and able to learn—and to help their whole team learn and execute, too. No. Build a whole team with people who willing to learn new stuff around that rock star.
- mandymoorefan 2y ago
  ~~No.~~ Yes, but you should also ... . To maximize the impact they can have.
- Narann 2y ago
  To continue the analogy: Rock stars want to rock, not to teach music.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - heavenlyblue 2y ago
    > Rock stars want to rock, not to teach music. Even rock stars do not do that alone. Somebody has to put the equipment together, sell tickets, record their music, play bass.
    - akasakahakada 2y ago
      So you mean rock star should leave music and teach people how to sell tickets and mix tracks?
  - abadpoli 2y ago
    And yet if you want to build an empire of rock music, the person who teaches stars to rock is vastly more important than any one star. Even the 5x dev who teaches just 2 others to be 5x devs is more impactful than the lone 10x dev that ignores their team, and always will be.
_gmax0 2y ago
I wonder if there's a strong positive correlation between periods of high Federal Fund Rates and periods of prevailing sentiment that espouses for 10x developers.
sjeneenee 2y ago
If you have ever worked in no-tech IT sectors, such as financial institutions, you'll notice that the overal level of knowledge, even with senior developers, is limited, which makes someone who is just'good'very quickly a 10x developer. But it's not the 10x developer that is super good here, it's the other team members, who are just utter shit
- znpy 2y ago
  Just to share somewhat of a "corollary" to this: if you get into one of such institutions, chances are there already is a "10x developer" and chances are those environments are the kind of environments where a few people (or maybe a single person) can monopolize the decision making process (because they are regarded as the 10x developer). So think twice about pursuing such environments: very often it's not the other team members that are utter shit... Is that the "10x engineer" is making that work environment toxic and not worth staying for other "10x engineer" (but also for "15x engineers" and "35x engineers" who only lack the context about that specific domain). So the logic is actually inverse: those environments very often will only retain a manipulative/toxic/narcissistic "10x engineer" and a bunch of people that are okay with doing whatever and getting the paycheck at the end of the month (and get, maybe wrongly, referred to as "utter shits"). Don't ask me how i know.
  - wetpaws 2y ago
    [dead]
  - mbsa_cs 2y ago
    This is making me reflect about my current work. Prior to reading this I used to think that our tech lead just happened to have the best ideas but now I’m just not sure anymore. Do they have the best ideas or did they master the politics necessary to push their ideas up the stack and everybody else doesn't care enough? I wonder…
    - znpy 2y ago
      > Do they have the best ideas or did they master the politics necessary to push their ideas up the stack and everybody else doesn't care enough? Exactly: I had a very similar experience in my previous work. A single guy was super-effective at pushing the technology he was strong in, and preventing anything else from reaching even development environment. He was effectively a 10x because no other colleague was given an actual chance of shining.
llmblockchain 2y ago
A 10x developer _is_ the team. Everyone else is collateral.
danlugo92 2y ago
No. Slackers and juniors slow down 10x devs. Making the team slower than if the 10x was alone.

38 points by kungfudoi 2y ago

> Instead of an engineer who’s an order of magnitude “better” than their peers, leaders should look for people who are willing and able to learn—and to help their whole team learn and execute, too. No. Build a whole team with people who willing to learn new stuff around that rock star.

mandymoorefan 2y ago
~~No.~~ Yes, but you should also ... . To maximize the impact they can have.
Narann 2y ago
To continue the analogy: Rock stars want to rock, not to teach music.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- heavenlyblue 2y ago
  > Rock stars want to rock, not to teach music. Even rock stars do not do that alone. Somebody has to put the equipment together, sell tickets, record their music, play bass.
  - akasakahakada 2y ago
    So you mean rock star should leave music and teach people how to sell tickets and mix tracks?
- abadpoli 2y ago
  And yet if you want to build an empire of rock music, the person who teaches stars to rock is vastly more important than any one star. Even the 5x dev who teaches just 2 others to be 5x devs is more impactful than the lone 10x dev that ignores their team, and always will be.

_gmax0 2y ago

I wonder if there's a strong positive correlation between periods of high Federal Fund Rates and periods of prevailing sentiment that espouses for 10x developers.

sjeneenee 2y ago

If you have ever worked in no-tech IT sectors, such as financial institutions, you'll notice that the overal level of knowledge, even with senior developers, is limited, which makes someone who is just'good'very quickly a 10x developer. But it's not the 10x developer that is super good here, it's the other team members, who are just utter shit

znpy 2y ago
Just to share somewhat of a "corollary" to this: if you get into one of such institutions, chances are there already is a "10x developer" and chances are those environments are the kind of environments where a few people (or maybe a single person) can monopolize the decision making process (because they are regarded as the 10x developer). So think twice about pursuing such environments: very often it's not the other team members that are utter shit... Is that the "10x engineer" is making that work environment toxic and not worth staying for other "10x engineer" (but also for "15x engineers" and "35x engineers" who only lack the context about that specific domain). So the logic is actually inverse: those environments very often will only retain a manipulative/toxic/narcissistic "10x engineer" and a bunch of people that are okay with doing whatever and getting the paycheck at the end of the month (and get, maybe wrongly, referred to as "utter shits"). Don't ask me how i know.
- wetpaws 2y ago
  [dead]
- mbsa_cs 2y ago
  This is making me reflect about my current work. Prior to reading this I used to think that our tech lead just happened to have the best ideas but now I’m just not sure anymore. Do they have the best ideas or did they master the politics necessary to push their ideas up the stack and everybody else doesn't care enough? I wonder…
  - znpy 2y ago
    > Do they have the best ideas or did they master the politics necessary to push their ideas up the stack and everybody else doesn't care enough? Exactly: I had a very similar experience in my previous work. A single guy was super-effective at pushing the technology he was strong in, and preventing anything else from reaching even development environment. He was effectively a 10x because no other colleague was given an actual chance of shining.

llmblockchain 2y ago

A 10x developer _is_ the team. Everyone else is collateral.

danlugo92 2y ago

No. Slackers and juniors slow down 10x devs. Making the team slower than if the 10x was alone.