In this article/talk, the "talent myth" in question is not that individual 10x programmers exist. It's that the distribution of talent is bimodal, that you're

In this article/talk, the "talent myth" in question is not that individual 10x programmers exist. It's that the distribution of talent is bimodal, that you're either a rockstar or "not really a programmer" with nothing in between. Note the example of Ann Trason, who would surely count as a 10x runner. The normal distribution doesn't preclude this; it merely makes it improbable that any given person is, in fact, a 10x runner. Of course, it's much easier to identify 10x runners, since there's a clear metric to rank by; how do you do that in programming? I believe I've worked with 10x programmers, but how do I know this isn't just another "I know it when I see it" fallacy on my part?