If it were directed at a particular person, sure. Otherwise, the author is describing negative traits and behaviors. Have you ever taken any management training? This is the quintessential way of discussing these sorts of things neutrally. Yes, you'd never want to call an individual a -10x engineer, but this is a random article on the internet. It's okay to be a bit headline-attention-grabby and stylistic so the article isn't dry and corporate.
You know what. I do agree with most points in the article. And I do find them funny.
Yet, I also met an awful lot of terrific engineers who were brutally aggressive towards anything they felt was stupid. And in my opinion, those people cause at least just as many problems as people who perform really poorly.
I think the tone of the article (cynical, exagerating bad traits, etc.) promotes that kind of toxic culture, while not bringing much to the table in terms of fighting mediocrity. That is all.
Fair enough, thanks for clarifying. I haven't run into too many of those people (brutally aggressive and terrific engineers). The toxic people I've run into spent all their time trying to look smart to cover their incompetence.
