Comment by jononomo
3 years ago
First, the "I'm a 10x dev" personality type is not a 10x dev. Arrogance is a sign of insecurity.
Second, I don't think a team of ten 1.5x programmers will beat out a 10x programmer. You either have the depth of understanding and imagination or you don't. Take Linus Torvalds, for instance -- I would say he is a 100x programmer, or perhaps a 10,000x programmer, since he is the author of both Git and Linux -- good luck trying to replicate that contribution with a "well managed team". It is similar in many areas -- 10 guys with Math PhDs do not make one Einstein.
In the context of hiring for a business that is developing a CRUD app, you're usually trying to differentiate between 1x programmers and 0.1x programmers, however -- 10x programmers aren't often looking for work.
Pretty much, it's not about grinding out assembly line CRUD work but vision. Domas is another good example if you ever watch his Black Hat presentations on x86 backdoors he's able to approach topics that are not just technically challenging but in a manner that simply would not be attainable for many.
The irony is most companies doing routine CRUD/simple business apps probably shouldn't hire such people as it's a waste and likely causes bad outcomes and perpetuates the stereotype.