Whether "10x" exists depends entirely on the problem domain and the way you define productivity. If the problem domain is building an HTML login page, and your

Whether "10x" exists depends entirely on the problem domain and the way you define productivity. If the problem domain is building an HTML login page, and your measure of productivity is time to complete, then a 10x programmer probably doesn't exist. A whiz maybe writes it in 5 minutes and the average Web dude takes 20. Typing speed may be the limiting factor. If the problem domain is building a better way to search the Web, and the way you define productivity is in long-term revenues generated, then Larry Page and Sergey Brin are billion-x programmers for building Backrub/Google.