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Actually I believe almost everyone who is reading hacker news is a 10x programmer. It's really quite simple, the average IT person, especially in "enterprise" h

by olavgg 12y ago

Actually I believe almost everyone who is reading hacker news is a 10x programmer. It's really quite simple, the average IT person, especially in "enterprise" has very limited knowledge, but they do know some programming. Either in Cobol, Basic, ASP or Excel. Their job is to solve problems, but they're not really interested in their work. A job is a job, not a hobby. They have never heard about system automation, still thinks Linux is evil and a bedroom project and believes VMWare is a coming revolution for system administration, which they're gonna start to use soon.

peter12355 12y ago
I wish it would be like that but my experience is that even average IT people are quite interested in what they do. (I'm still a student so my sample size is not that big).
- gloverkcn 12y ago
  I find it's heavily dependent on the company. Companies that see IT as core to a successful business tend to attract 10x programmers. If you are still in school then my advice is to learn to interview a company while you are interviewing for a job. Find the place that's going to push you more, regardless of pay.
jonaldomo 12y ago
I agree. It reminds me of parenting, if you are thinking about how you can be a better parent, you are already ahead of the pack.
FLUX-YOU 12y ago
I don't agree, if only because I'm the anecdote. I'm trying to pick up Rust and mess around with app/net security, but at my job, I feel like I'm in the middle of the pack. There are instances when I quickly fix stuff but also take forever to find a simple problem. To be fair, we do have a very extensive app with 15 years of code rot and only 2 members of the original team to guide/teach. But a guy that started a month after me is already 2x what I am in LOC/fix time. (I know, I know, LOC is a poor metric) This and "if you read books, you're already way ahead of the pack" or similar statements are just feel-good statements. It's very clear that the other guy and the two original team members are way more productive than I am despite me trying to hit all of the recommended reading books and reading HN/subreddits/blogs/etc. You can read HN/books/stack overflow and be really good as long as you take advantage of the information and actually practice it in the real world. But until you go and actually measure real things like LOC/fix time/projects completed, the signals "reading HN/books/whatever" are just cultural signals.
- indymike 12y ago
  The attitude you have is the one that eventually drives you to be a 10x. If you think you are awesome at what you do, that is when you probably are not.
  - trentnelson 12y ago
    > If you think you are awesome at what you do, that is when you probably are not. Nailed it.
- lerno 12y ago
  Here are some observations that may or may not help you: Average programmers tend to: * like new projects * want to build "new things" * not like fixing bugs * not like reading code * not like to redo their designs/code * think their code is as good as it gets Good programmers on the other hand * tries to find joy in thr task at hand * thinks their old code is bad * aren't invested in their own designs * don't fear trying solutions * reads code rather than docs about the code * don't mind fixing bugs * happy when the code quality goes up, hates it when it goes down. In other words - good coders CARE, average coders just want to have fun and build stuff. This means the latter group doesn't build the understanding of how to build good, bug free code. They prefer to build themselves into a corner rather than throwing out their designs. Thus they get less practice.

by olavgg 12y ago

peter12355 12y ago

I wish it would be like that but my experience is that even average IT people are quite interested in what they do. (I'm still a student so my sample size is not that big).

gloverkcn 12y ago
I find it's heavily dependent on the company. Companies that see IT as core to a successful business tend to attract 10x programmers. If you are still in school then my advice is to learn to interview a company while you are interviewing for a job. Find the place that's going to push you more, regardless of pay.

jonaldomo 12y ago

I agree. It reminds me of parenting, if you are thinking about how you can be a better parent, you are already ahead of the pack.

FLUX-YOU 12y ago

I don't agree, if only because I'm the anecdote. I'm trying to pick up Rust and mess around with app/net security, but at my job, I feel like I'm in the middle of the pack. There are instances when I quickly fix stuff but also take forever to find a simple problem. To be fair, we do have a very extensive app with 15 years of code rot and only 2 members of the original team to guide/teach. But a guy that started a month after me is already 2x what I am in LOC/fix time. (I know, I know, LOC is a poor metric) This and "if you read books, you're already way ahead of the pack" or similar statements are just feel-good statements. It's very clear that the other guy and the two original team members are way more productive than I am despite me trying to hit all of the recommended reading books and reading HN/subreddits/blogs/etc. You can read HN/books/stack overflow and be really good as long as you take advantage of the information and actually practice it in the real world. But until you go and actually measure real things like LOC/fix time/projects completed, the signals "reading HN/books/whatever" are just cultural signals.

indymike 12y ago
The attitude you have is the one that eventually drives you to be a 10x. If you think you are awesome at what you do, that is when you probably are not.
- trentnelson 12y ago
  > If you think you are awesome at what you do, that is when you probably are not. Nailed it.
lerno 12y ago
Here are some observations that may or may not help you: Average programmers tend to: * like new projects * want to build "new things" * not like fixing bugs * not like reading code * not like to redo their designs/code * think their code is as good as it gets Good programmers on the other hand * tries to find joy in thr task at hand * thinks their old code is bad * aren't invested in their own designs * don't fear trying solutions * reads code rather than docs about the code * don't mind fixing bugs * happy when the code quality goes up, hates it when it goes down. In other words - good coders CARE, average coders just want to have fun and build stuff. This means the latter group doesn't build the understanding of how to build good, bug free code. They prefer to build themselves into a corner rather than throwing out their designs. Thus they get less practice.