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This keeps coming up on HN, which leads me to think a lot of people don't trust the 10x language, and/or they feel inadequate in some way and want to feel bette

This keeps coming up on HN, which leads me to think a lot of people don't trust the 10x language, and/or they feel inadequate in some way and want to feel better about themselves. In my experience, there are 10x programmers (just like there are 10x musicians and 10x doctors and 10x pretty much everything). Of course, a 10x functional developer isn't inherently a 10x OOP developer, just like a 10x trumpeter isn't inherently a 10x drummer. I don't think we need to kill the 10x developer myth, but that _all_ we need are 10x developers. I think a much more interesting discussion would be what a really good 1x developer would look like. I.e., what is a good baseline? How do we nurture more people to reach for competency? And in growing the overall talent pool, identify the 5x, 10x, or even 100x developers.

jghn 11y ago
I just take issue with the nomenclature. It fits in to a general narrative that I dislike in our industry. Of course there is a long tail in terms of productivity, that's just how life is. But turning that into a buzzword does a great disservice. You don't see companies in other industries pretending that their product is a special snowflake and demanding rockstar 10x whatevers. No, they manage to be more mature about the whole process.
- mauricemir 11y ago
  IB, Management Consultancy and Law certainly have that aspect - even if you are realy paying $2000 a day for a wet behind the ears MBA with no experience. If your a rich person with legal trouble you want a rockstar lawyer like Cherie Blair as your Barrister. Just Like the NI journalists who got off from bribing cops - they had the most expensive lawyers money can buy
  - thomasahle 11y ago
    Though Law is probably not a good example of a non-toxic environment. (Source: TV-series)
  - jghn 11y ago
    I didn't say it didn't exist. I was saying that the verbiage is different. IOw I have no problem with accepting that not all people are created equal, I just find the way that notion is handled in our industry to be childish
    - mauricemir 11y ago
      How is it handled differently in tech vs say big FTSE 100 companies.
  - irishcoffee 11y ago
    Not to mention the culinary industry, fashion industry, sports industry, etc. etc. etc.
    - mauricemir 11y ago
      Quite you don't get bananas thrown at BME techies do you as happens to Black Footballers
karmacondon 11y ago
The problem with the terminology is that it's tied to a number. Why not just call them ”good” or ”great” like every other profession does? There is no one who can consistently provide a 10X increase to a company's bottom line, period. That might happen in rare cases when the previous setup was so catastrophically bad that any competent developer could have made a big impact with common sense changes. But no one can go from company to company and consistently have an order of magnitude impact on anything. If the myth were true then a ”10X” developer would be able to go to Google, Twitter or Facebook and make their service 10 times faster or more profitable. Does that sound even remotely realistic to you? Sure, in a small shop one person can have a disproportionate impact. But there are no 10X developers, only 10X situations.
- Klockan 11y ago
  I have never heard of anyone else who uses the term the way you do. "10x" usually refers to those contributing ten times as much to the bottom-line compared to some standard "x".

jghn 11y ago

I just take issue with the nomenclature. It fits in to a general narrative that I dislike in our industry. Of course there is a long tail in terms of productivity, that's just how life is. But turning that into a buzzword does a great disservice. You don't see companies in other industries pretending that their product is a special snowflake and demanding rockstar 10x whatevers. No, they manage to be more mature about the whole process.

mauricemir 11y ago
IB, Management Consultancy and Law certainly have that aspect - even if you are realy paying $2000 a day for a wet behind the ears MBA with no experience. If your a rich person with legal trouble you want a rockstar lawyer like Cherie Blair as your Barrister. Just Like the NI journalists who got off from bribing cops - they had the most expensive lawyers money can buy
- thomasahle 11y ago
  Though Law is probably not a good example of a non-toxic environment. (Source: TV-series)
- jghn 11y ago
  I didn't say it didn't exist. I was saying that the verbiage is different. IOw I have no problem with accepting that not all people are created equal, I just find the way that notion is handled in our industry to be childish
  - mauricemir 11y ago
    How is it handled differently in tech vs say big FTSE 100 companies.
- irishcoffee 11y ago
  Not to mention the culinary industry, fashion industry, sports industry, etc. etc. etc.
  - mauricemir 11y ago
    Quite you don't get bananas thrown at BME techies do you as happens to Black Footballers

karmacondon 11y ago

The problem with the terminology is that it's tied to a number. Why not just call them ”good” or ”great” like every other profession does? There is no one who can consistently provide a 10X increase to a company's bottom line, period. That might happen in rare cases when the previous setup was so catastrophically bad that any competent developer could have made a big impact with common sense changes. But no one can go from company to company and consistently have an order of magnitude impact on anything. If the myth were true then a ”10X” developer would be able to go to Google, Twitter or Facebook and make their service 10 times faster or more profitable. Does that sound even remotely realistic to you? Sure, in a small shop one person can have a disproportionate impact. But there are no 10X developers, only 10X situations.

Klockan 11y ago
I have never heard of anyone else who uses the term the way you do. "10x" usually refers to those contributing ten times as much to the bottom-line compared to some standard "x".