Ask HN: [Serious] Have you met any actual 10x engineers?

labrador 2 years ago |

I've met several. Anticipating what you might ask, what makes them 10x engineers? The ability to go off by themselves, get themselves into a type of trance because they are so focused and return a week or two later with thousands of lines of a fully formed formed program with near perfect working code. It's amazing to see.

chrsw 2 years ago | |

In my opinion, the best engineers don't "go off by themselves". The best help enable an entire team to be more productive, learn faster and deliver value quicker.

labrador 2 years ago | | |

It takes great skill to lead a group of people and get the most out of them. That's not an engineering problem.

chrsw 2 years ago | | |

It doesn't necessarily have to be leadership. It could be communication, documentation, culture, any number of things. Yes, we are engineers and we work on technical challenges. But nothing is done in isolation, everything is collaboration. The better engineers are the ones that realize this sooner. Even if one person writes amazing code, someone else has to test it, someone has to ship it, someone has to maintain it. These are all engineering problems.

labrador 2 years ago | | |

Yes, we all know these things. You're giving me boilerplate management speak. When asked about 10x engineers I think of someone like Fabrice Bellard https://bellard.org/

chrsw 2 years ago | | |

Fabrice Bellard is a great programmer. For me, 10x is about delivering real value. not just showing off how clever you are. I wish we all knew this but based on my experience that is not the case.

syndicatedjelly 2 years ago | |

What kind of companies or spaces have you encountered them in?

labrador 2 years ago | | |

One was at Microsoft. He kept his office dark except for a large illumiated picture of Jesus on his wall. Everyone spoke reverentially of him and knew to leave him alone. Another was at a small company I worked at. He was my senior. He disappeared for 10 days and returned with about 10,000 lines of 68000 asm code that utilized all 16 32bit registers to pass parameters instead of the stack. I was tasked with testing it. I never found anything wrong with it that weren't minor nits.

syndicatedjelly 2 years ago | | |

> He was my senior. He disappeared for 10 days and returned with about 10,000 lines of 68000 asm code that utilized all 16 32bit registers to pass parameters instead of the stack. I was tasked with testing it. I never found anything wrong with it that weren't minor nits.

The places I've worked at would chew me out for "re-inventing the wheel", which is what this would be seen as. How do you vet a workplace ahead of time, that lets you do this kind of "mad scientist" tinkering and engineering?

labrador 2 years ago | | |

This was back in the day when the Macintosh was new. There were no libraries. We wrote our own.

db48x 2 years ago |

A fair few, yes. Don't forget that the original definition (from Peopleware) means that these engineers are 10× better than the least capable engineers who are able to maintain their career, not 10× better than the average engineer. They were also comparing engineers across companies, so it's possible (though statistically unlikely) that you and every engineer at your company are 10× engineers.

codingdave 2 years ago |

Sure, I've met them. I've been them. I've also met and been the opposite.

Many people can be 10x when everything is aligned for their specific skill set, working environment, and personality. Being hyper-productive is less of a unique aspect of a person, and more about giving people the exact environment in which they can do their best work.

RGamma 2 years ago |

[Serious]? Not reddit, but it might as well be.