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Does the 10x Engineer really exist?

3 points by veucast ↗ HN
I came across founders recommending hiring a 10x engineer (software engineer)for your startup. Apparently it's someone who is 10x more productive than an average engineer. But do these people really exist? and if so, how do you even find them?

7 comments

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minimaxir
Yes, but not at a rate that it's possible to find them before you know they are actually a 10x engineer.

10x engineers are effectively a meme that died years ago and anyone who is advocating for it unironically in 2023 is behind the times.

heartag
My understanding is that the origin of that phrase came from "some engineers have 10x the output of the worst engineers" not the average engineer. Then it became a phrase to let people on social media self-identify as alpha-males while preening for their viewers.

You want to hire a diligent engineer who can problem solve and manage work-life balance to provide you years of value. And unlike a unicorn, these people exist.

eschneider
Finding folks 10x better than the _worst_ programmers isn't terribly hard. That's probably 2-3x better than your median programmer. Lots of folks like that out there, but it's not always easy to identify them in the interview stage and often they're only that much better than the median in certain contexts.
heckraiser
Yes, the coveted chimeras do exist, yet unlike the fiction in the minds of “hiring managers.”

10x engineers aren’t robots, they’re usually moody and need pay less than work that doesn’t make them feel like dirty whores.

10x engineers DO NOT DO 10x more work, they are 10x more “productive.” This means …

They understand the problem, they don’t rush headlong into make work, they create less problems for themselves (the real engineering overhead), these operate multiple roles with versatility, and often pre-empt problems, especially with humans.

Some can work and work and work, and some apparently do nothing until a flurry of action buttons up months of careful planning.

Find them? What do you have that they would want? It’s better to find a pretty good engineer who will be reliable and promote their taking initiative.

fuzzfactor
10x more effective at overcoming founder & investor misconceptions about productivity beats 10x more productive any day.

Just about any way you define productivity.

So you need both if you're going to try to outshit the shitter, cause he already lives on turd avenue.

Cogitate on that for while.

JohnFen
They do, but they're vanishingly rare. Recommending hiring 10x engineers is roughly equivalent to recommending hiring actual geniuses. Yes, if you can, it's great (as long as you know how to work with them. If you don't, you're much better off not hiring them) -- but there are very, very few around to be hired.
devdude1337
Does a 10x artist exist? Or a 10x football player? How about a 10x manager? While outstanding talent does exist, it is extremely rare and often can only thrive in specific environments. Also who is the average engineer? If you put the best frontend specialist into an oldschool legacy sql mainframe task, he’ll look like a moron (at least for a few months). If you can create and sustain a great environment and fitting - you may be able to find a rockstar. Now fairytales aside - what I experienced to exist is a 0.x engineer. A net-negative programmer. For most non-tech people they look like a 10x…