4 ms·

Exploring: Is it possible to have a 10x /team/ rather than a 10x individual?

jotm 11y ago
Well, then you're just working for SpaceX :-)
DanielBMarkham 11y ago
Yes. You can even have a team of 1/10 folks who, put together, work at 10x. More counter-intuitively, you can take a 10x team full of folks everybody agrees are brilliant, stick them in other teams, and have the other teams tank and folks in the other teams think those folks are losers. It's a humbling (and enlightening) thing to watch. ADD: A lot of the myth of the 10 or 100x developer is just a really, really capable guy with a supporting team that is able to meet all of their needs and clear all of their obstacles. The team (including our star) is the cool and irreplaceable part, but the "genius" or "boy wonder" gets all the good press.
- matwood 11y ago
  > ADD: A lot of the myth of the 10 or 100x developer is just a really, really capable guy with a supporting team that is able to meet all of their needs and clear all of their obstacles. The team (including our star) is the cool and irreplaceable part, but the "genius" or "boy wonder" gets all the good press. I would argue this is almost always true especially in todays world of ever increasing software complexity. Building services, handling ops, fixing bugs, high level architecture, low level architecture, front end, back end, etc... are just impossible for a single person to ever be 10x at across the board. It takes a team to deliver software. I look at it a lot like Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the 90s. MJ was the 10x player, but without the other hall of famers and all stars on the team they would not have won like they did. The same also goes for the rest of the team.
  - DanielBMarkham 11y ago
    If you ask me, this phenomenon is the reason we see a lot of incredibly successful founders flail at a second startup -- and it's also the reason we see some folks continue to kick ass year after year. The first guys started believing their own press (One wag said that in SV, you either grow into the CEO role or you swell into it). They flipped, then started over -- leaving folks from the previous team spread here or there and not realizing they destroyed the magic. The second bunch just keeps honing a better and better team, moving the team into high positions of leadership. Each team member becomes a CEO, but the team survives (and continues to improve).

jotm 11y ago

Well, then you're just working for SpaceX :-)

Yes. You can even have a team of 1/10 folks who, put together, work at 10x. More counter-intuitively, you can take a 10x team full of folks everybody agrees are brilliant, stick them in other teams, and have the other teams tank and folks in the other teams think those folks are losers. It's a humbling (and enlightening) thing to watch. ADD: A lot of the myth of the 10 or 100x developer is just a really, really capable guy with a supporting team that is able to meet all of their needs and clear all of their obstacles. The team (including our star) is the cool and irreplaceable part, but the "genius" or "boy wonder" gets all the good press.

matwood 11y ago
> ADD: A lot of the myth of the 10 or 100x developer is just a really, really capable guy with a supporting team that is able to meet all of their needs and clear all of their obstacles. The team (including our star) is the cool and irreplaceable part, but the "genius" or "boy wonder" gets all the good press. I would argue this is almost always true especially in todays world of ever increasing software complexity. Building services, handling ops, fixing bugs, high level architecture, low level architecture, front end, back end, etc... are just impossible for a single person to ever be 10x at across the board. It takes a team to deliver software. I look at it a lot like Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the 90s. MJ was the 10x player, but without the other hall of famers and all stars on the team they would not have won like they did. The same also goes for the rest of the team.
- DanielBMarkham 11y ago
  If you ask me, this phenomenon is the reason we see a lot of incredibly successful founders flail at a second startup -- and it's also the reason we see some folks continue to kick ass year after year. The first guys started believing their own press (One wag said that in SV, you either grow into the CEO role or you swell into it). They flipped, then started over -- leaving folks from the previous team spread here or there and not realizing they destroyed the magic. The second bunch just keeps honing a better and better team, moving the team into high positions of leadership. Each team member becomes a CEO, but the team survives (and continues to improve).