4 ms·
Tons of 10x hate in here already. Is there a reason this is such a stumbling block for people? Is there a reason that isn't tinged by sour grapes? I'm like 99%
by benched 13y ago
Tons of 10x hate in here already. Is there a reason this is such a stumbling block for people? Is there a reason that isn't tinged by sour grapes? I'm like 99% convinced that I've worked with such people and seen what they can do. I'd be willing to buy that it isn't simply the individual, but the individual plus the right circumstances. But I absolutely can't say that I've never seen a single developer write a surprisingly large amount of good code in a surprisingly short amount of time, because I have seen it.
- jacalata 13y ago"some developers are surprisingly good" must be the weak form of the 10x hypothesis, and to quote someone else on the internet "where there is a strong version and a weak version of a hypothesis, the weak version is usually trivially true". (The strong version is that the weak version is always just trivial and the strong version is never true).
- r00fus 13y agoI think it's important to distinguish 10x "developers" and 10x moments that a given developer has. It's like 1.000 game, a hat-trick or triple-double - sometimes any given player has the potential (though not all may be given the opportunity) to make their mark.
- benched 13y agoAnd yet nobody denies there was something highly unusual about Michael Jordan.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 13y agoBasketball is a pretty narrow field though. Anyway, wouldn't you say Linus is a good 10x type of programmer?
- sbilstein 13y agoLebron James does not make 10 times the contributions of the other players, but he makes the team incredible. The number attached to the 10x engineer is largely bullshit as well as not measurable. I've worked with engineers who make everyone around them much more productive through excellent library code or laying down dope infrastructure that everyone else can leverage. I've also worked with engineers who mentor other engineers extremely well giving those productivity gains in turn. That doesn't mean she is slinging ten times the code or tickets or whatever every one else on the team is; she is just enabling productivity gains by being an excellent team player. The notion of 10x is a misnomer at best and at worst cause people to focus on other measures that are ultimately meaningless...leading to burnout.
- benched 13y agoOh, ok. Look everyone, now it's the number that's the problem. How many more ways can we think of to discredit this notion, which is clearly so in need of discrediting? Get to work, people.
- jakejake 13y agoI think the 10x label is just something that is easy to say and comprehend. But the real impact of a high-performing developer is probably way more than 10x. It's not really about lines of code. It might be that this person makes a breakthrough which changes your industry. It might be the difference between staying in business or not. I've had the pleasure of working with very high-performing developers and the positive impact they can have on a team is amazing. I can see how some people don't believe it if they have never worked on a team where one person amazed and inspired them.
- frenchy 13y agoProbably because self-styled 10x developers in real life are often developers who are good at creating technicall debt really quickly.
- benched 13y agoYou are thinking of a different class of people than I am.