One thing that I think gets lost in this conversation is the 0x engineer. I've met a few people who I'd put into this category and I've definitely met people who think of themselves in the 10x mold who I'd categorize as 0x. Ironically in my experience 0x engineers tend to be really good programmers, but they just don't know how to understand or don't care at a deep level what the business wants so they just build whatever is convenient or enjoyable for them to build.They get away with this on poorly managed projects led by non technical people. Eventually, deep into the project the non technical people start to figure out that the thing they are getting is going to be really poorly suited to their needs and by that time they are over commited and totally screwed. Zero or negative value could be delivered over an extended period of time here.
Compared to the 0x developer, a junior developer who gets a basic understanding of what is needed then solved it with a standard well suited tool is an infiniteX developer.
And there is a huge space in the middle here. But I'd venture a guess that all said and done, deeply understanding the problem space and client or business needs correlates more highly with total productivity than programming wizardry over the long run.
And don't forget the -10x engineer. The guy on the team who creates something others depend on, hasn't got the skill to fix its bugs and has the "well there's obviously nothing wrong with my code" personality type.
A -10x engineer wouldn't be capable of creating anything from scratch, even if they did they would likely have issues getting buy in from the wider organization for said code to go into production. They would spend their days engaged in the wonton destruction of previously stable applications, wasting the time of competent devs with incessant questions and ultimately creating a net loss in wider organizational output.
>A -10x engineer wouldn't be capable of creating anything from scratch, even if they did they would likely have issues getting buy in from the wider organization for said code to go into production
I have a two data points from a -10x engineer that say otherwise. They definitely do start things. The rest of us spend a decade making their mess a stable, workable system.
You can take it up another level where the 10x developer goes over the project managers and gets a better understanding of the company goals directly from the decision makers. Then he becomes a 100x developer because he eliminates the communication overhead of the middle man.
Compared to the 0x developer, a junior developer who gets a basic understanding of what is needed then solved it with a standard well suited tool is an infiniteX developer.
And there is a huge space in the middle here. But I'd venture a guess that all said and done, deeply understanding the problem space and client or business needs correlates more highly with total productivity than programming wizardry over the long run.