But what could be the underlying reason, seeing as 10x programmers are only 1.5-3.0x as expensive? I'd venture that it's because something like less than x% of

But what could be the underlying reason, seeing as 10x programmers are only 1.5-3.0x as expensive? I'd venture that it's because something like less than x% of all programmers are elite; where x is some number between 5 and 10. In this case, if you are PHB and have a budget of y for staff (where y <= average) and time variable of z (where z <= average) for a release date - it would appear that you are an incompetent PHB if you believe you can hire an elite programmer to solve your problem(s).