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They would only be 20 times better or infinitely better at those particular tasks though. That seems right to me, it seems like only really Hard problems allow
by acgourley 19y ago
They would only be 20 times better or infinitely better at those particular tasks though.
That seems right to me, it seems like only really Hard problems allow people to show what they are made of, and the easier problems keep the pack more bunched together.
It's an important distinction, because a lot of programming is not of the demanding sort described above. It might even be that for some jobs, in some job markets, you don't want to try to hire the best. The cost in salary, recruitment, lost time and turn over might trump the 2-3x gain a top level programmer would offer in a non-challenging environment.
- pg 19y agoPart of performing a task is redefining it.
- shawndrost 19y agoThere are tasks that are strictly defined from the outset: there is an existing code base and tech stack, and you must conform to certain company conventions, and the requirements are strict. I would guess this work constitutes 90% of paid development (and ~2% of useful code). I don't think your argument really applies to those tasks.