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> 10x engineers have dark backgrounds, are rarely seen doing user-interface work, and are poor mentors and interviewers If you think a great (10x) engineer has

by vrnvu 2y ago

> 10x engineers have dark backgrounds, are rarely seen doing user-interface work, and are poor mentors and interviewers If you think a great (10x) engineer has bad social skills, isn’t a good mentor, and isn’t a strong teammate… you’ve never actually worked with one. What truly makes someone a great engineer is being technically impeccable and having next-level soft skills.

romanhn 2y ago
Exactly. While 10x (or whatever) is possible on pure technical ability, I would argue that the majority of engineers who provide outsized value do so through enabling others to do their best work and unblocking the wave that raises all the boats, rather than coding by themselves in a dark room.
- matwood 2y ago
  Exactly. The way a 10x engineer really 10x’s is by leveling up the entire team.
jt2190 2y ago
Not sure if this was your intention, but you’ve pulled these words out of context, making it seem like the author is making this claim, when in fact the author writes that to describe what others claim. > Most of us have encountered a few software engineers who seem practically magician-like, a class apart from the rest of us in their ability to reason about complex mental models, leap to nonobvious yet elegant solutions, or emit waves of high-quality code at unreal velocity. > I have run into many of these incredible beings over the course of my career. I think their existence is what explains the curious durability of the notion of a “10x engineer,” someone who is 10 times as productive or skilled as their peers. The idea—which has become a meme—is based on flimsy, shoddy research, and the claims people have made to defend it have often been risible (for example, 10x engineers have dark backgrounds, are rarely seen doing user-interface work, and are poor mentors and interviewers) or blatantly double down on stereotypes (“we look for young dudes in hoodies who remind us of Mark Zuckerberg”). But damn if it doesn’t resonate with experience. It just feels true. > I don’t have a problem with the idea that there are engineers who are 10 times as productive as other engineers. The problems I do have are twofold….
moffkalast 2y ago
> 10x engineers have dark backgrounds I think this is true, but in the metaphorical sense hah. Few with a happy childhood end up this way.
lalaithion 2y ago
I once worked with a 10x engineer who I could hand new backend APIs to and have a brand new ui component that supported the behavior in less than a day, consistently. I have worked with 10x engineers who spend hours on calls walking junior engineers through problems they're having. That's part of being a 10x engineer – what this article is talking about is random 1x engineers with a chip on their shoulder and unshakeable arrogance.
deleted 2y ago
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throw833999 2y ago
That is a nice theory. But if someone is doing 10x more work, they get 10x more emails, and 10x more mentoring. They are not rude, just very very tired! 10x devs do not do mentoring and "social skills", because it does not scale. They write readme, maybe record a video, and move on to next task. If you have a question, send email and you get response latter! Sitting all day on meetings kills productivity very fast! Buttering someone up, just because they are lazy to study documentation, and somehow they have power over you, is not a team work!!!

by vrnvu 2y ago

romanhn 2y ago

Exactly. While 10x (or whatever) is possible on pure technical ability, I would argue that the majority of engineers who provide outsized value do so through enabling others to do their best work and unblocking the wave that raises all the boats, rather than coding by themselves in a dark room.

matwood 2y ago
Exactly. The way a 10x engineer really 10x’s is by leveling up the entire team.

jt2190 2y ago

Not sure if this was your intention, but you’ve pulled these words out of context, making it seem like the author is making this claim, when in fact the author writes that to describe what others claim. > Most of us have encountered a few software engineers who seem practically magician-like, a class apart from the rest of us in their ability to reason about complex mental models, leap to nonobvious yet elegant solutions, or emit waves of high-quality code at unreal velocity. > I have run into many of these incredible beings over the course of my career. I think their existence is what explains the curious durability of the notion of a “10x engineer,” someone who is 10 times as productive or skilled as their peers. The idea—which has become a meme—is based on flimsy, shoddy research, and the claims people have made to defend it have often been risible (for example, 10x engineers have dark backgrounds, are rarely seen doing user-interface work, and are poor mentors and interviewers) or blatantly double down on stereotypes (“we look for young dudes in hoodies who remind us of Mark Zuckerberg”). But damn if it doesn’t resonate with experience. It just feels true. > I don’t have a problem with the idea that there are engineers who are 10 times as productive as other engineers. The problems I do have are twofold….

moffkalast 2y ago

> 10x engineers have dark backgrounds I think this is true, but in the metaphorical sense hah. Few with a happy childhood end up this way.

lalaithion 2y ago

I once worked with a 10x engineer who I could hand new backend APIs to and have a brand new ui component that supported the behavior in less than a day, consistently. I have worked with 10x engineers who spend hours on calls walking junior engineers through problems they're having. That's part of being a 10x engineer – what this article is talking about is random 1x engineers with a chip on their shoulder and unshakeable arrogance.

deleted 2y ago

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throw833999 2y ago

That is a nice theory. But if someone is doing 10x more work, they get 10x more emails, and 10x more mentoring. They are not rude, just very very tired! 10x devs do not do mentoring and "social skills", because it does not scale. They write readme, maybe record a video, and move on to next task. If you have a question, send email and you get response latter! Sitting all day on meetings kills productivity very fast! Buttering someone up, just because they are lazy to study documentation, and somehow they have power over you, is not a team work!!!