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> High performance is generally an anti pattern in software. Talk about "10X performers" reminds me of the saying "It’s a marathon, not a race." Most people re

> High performance is generally an anti pattern in software. Talk about "10X performers" reminds me of the saying "It’s a marathon, not a race." Most people recognize Usain Bolt, but how many people have heard of Eliud Kipchoge? In our field, the "Usains"—the flashy 10X performers—are hailed as heroes. If you are a "Kipchoge", quietly focusing on a sustainable career, you will probably fly under the radar.

InitialBP 2y ago
Kipchoge is less like "quietly focusing on a sustainable career" and more like "consistently maintaining the highest quality and pace of development and rarely if ever having an off week".
rightbyte 2y ago
> "It’s a marathon, not a race." Rather "it's a crawl, not a marathon". Also, I think the most value a programmer provide is as a maintainer. I blame feature factories led by agile clergy for the perceived drop in commercial software quality in the last 10-15 years. There is no place for maintainance.
- stickfigure 2y ago
  > I blame feature factories led by agile clergy This is a weird take. The most basic principle of agile is that you start with a tiny kernel of software that does something useful, and then iterate on it. In effect, all agile software development is maintenance.
austin-cheney 2y ago
You and I have very different definitions of 10x developers. 10x developers are just people who can achieve vastly superior performance. Rarely is there any announcement, bragging, or bravado that comes with this. On the contrary most 10x developers tend to want to hide their performance up until they are ready to quit. Its not like they are going to get paid 10x more for over achieving. There is nothing flashy to this. Instead they will be reassigned to other people's problems on top of their own work. So, its best to just keep it to themselves and over achieve as necessary to do less work, because they will get paid the same either way.

InitialBP 2y ago

Kipchoge is less like "quietly focusing on a sustainable career" and more like "consistently maintaining the highest quality and pace of development and rarely if ever having an off week".

rightbyte 2y ago

> "It’s a marathon, not a race." Rather "it's a crawl, not a marathon". Also, I think the most value a programmer provide is as a maintainer. I blame feature factories led by agile clergy for the perceived drop in commercial software quality in the last 10-15 years. There is no place for maintainance.

stickfigure 2y ago
> I blame feature factories led by agile clergy This is a weird take. The most basic principle of agile is that you start with a tiny kernel of software that does something useful, and then iterate on it. In effect, all agile software development is maintenance.

austin-cheney 2y ago

You and I have very different definitions of 10x developers. 10x developers are just people who can achieve vastly superior performance. Rarely is there any announcement, bragging, or bravado that comes with this. On the contrary most 10x developers tend to want to hide their performance up until they are ready to quit. Its not like they are going to get paid 10x more for over achieving. There is nothing flashy to this. Instead they will be reassigned to other people's problems on top of their own work. So, its best to just keep it to themselves and over achieve as necessary to do less work, because they will get paid the same either way.