There's no such thing as a "10x" programmer, and anyone who uses it doesn't know what they're talking about.
reply10x relative to what exactly? It's not a statement grounded in any kind of reality.
10x makes sense only in terms of specific technology platforms.
replyI'm a 10x programmer at building Django apps compared to a developer who has never worked with Django before.
Someone who developers against WordPress on a daily basis will easily 10x my own attempts at building things on that platform.
I don't think it's only about specific technologies. I have occasionally worked with someone who was 10x (or more) the average in the org, and it wasn't just producing new code: it was debugging faster, reviewing faster, providing an insight to another dev with a moment's thought that unblocks their whole sprint, and, yes, still producing many times as many PRs as typical. In a modern corporate environment, the main problem is giving such a person enough to do in enough variety so that they don't get bored.
replyI've never understood it to be literal, but from my experience there is a big difference between the folks that show up to work on time, jump right into their work, they pay attention in meetings, know code base, and have the ability "lock in" as my kids say. On the other hand you have folks that show up late, spend all day chatting at the water cooler, get distracted with home stuff, comment on hacker news all day, and only manage to squeeze in a few hours of actual work a day.
replyIt's a transparent exercise in ego-stroking to justify one's commitment to capital incentives.
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