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Federico Roman
Federico Roman

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Would you rather be a 10x dev or one with imagination?

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lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

The 10x dev who is supposedly able to replace 10 "normal" developers is a myth.

You'll probably find developers who are able to run really effective solo-gigs that would usually take 2-3 devs, but suck as team members because they never take the time for knowledge transfer, or even to properly document their work.

Once you go beyond being senior developer, you've usually attained excellent technical knowledge, but if that doesn't help your team, you're going to fail.

I'd rather be a good team member and someone who can gain deep understanding of problem spaces (which is more useful than imagination in my experience) than a toxic self-proclaimed superstar.

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dashpy profile image
Federico Roman

Good answer

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lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

Of course an experienced developer can do more work than 10 inexperienced developers who did not understand the problem. That doesn't make him an actual 10x developer.

It's not scalable, too. Once you need to introduce more people, you'll be in trouble, as the 10x advantage evaporates into nothing or even goes into the negative.

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eljayadobe profile image
Eljay-Adobe

In my experience, the x10 dev is merely a dev on a team that practices clean code, as a team.

Thats my same experience with Agile™ claims of turning teams into hyper-productive performance machines. It's also nothing more than practicing clean code.

Your mileage may vary. That's my experience.

 
lexlohr profile image
Alex Lohr

Yes, understanding the problem better is incredibly useful, but that's not making you a 10x programmer, because once you move to a new problem you don't understand as well, the advantage is nil.