Before I changed the email address associated with my GitHub account I had 7,500 commits towards GitHub. I was the top contributor to GitHub by far in Cyprus. The guy who was number 2 had 3,500 commits. In 3 months after changing my email address, losing all commit history, I've climbed back to the top 25 again, at roughly 750 commits. Others are counting commits from the last 5 years, mine are for 3 months. As I pushed 7,500 commits to GitHub, this was less than 50% of my job, and I had a day job committing code to private repositories not accounted for in addition to my 7,500 commits towards GitHub.
It's not only me in Aista who's a 10x developer; Shirin, our Head of Frontend Development, runs in circles around every frontend developer I have worked with in my life, and I have worked with many since I started my professional life some 25 years ago. Below is one of her commits. Notice, it's got 4 more pages to scroll before you're at the end of it. If I'd guess, I'd say this is a couple of days worth of coding for Shirin.
Unfortunately for Shirin's GitHub history, most of her commits are pushed into private repositories, so if you only look at her public profile, you'd miss most of the good parts. However, have no doubt, this girl will deliver in 1 week what most other Angular developers would need half a year to deliver!
Mohsen, our Head of Backend development, doesn't have that many commits, because his primary task is to setup our Kubernetes cluster(s). However, in a couple of months he basically setup no less than 3 different clusters, in 3 different data centres, in 3 different countries. We've got striped replicated volumes, on top of RAID 10, load balancing with failovers and CDN, and a security model that would make the engineers at Google blush over their morning coffee. 99.999% uptime is probably within reach for us. In case you're wondering, such figures would give us higher uptime than Facebook, probably somewhere close to the landing page at Google.com. One of our servers physically started burning a month ago. Within seconds everything was back up again due to our failover strategy and redundancy layers ...
Do you believe in Magic?
I once had a manager who told me literally to "stop being so bloody productive, I don't believe in 10x developers, you're not here to produce". One week later I resigned. My thought process was as follows.
You don't believe in me, I don't believe in you!
10x developers are a real thing, I should know because I'm one of them, and I've exclusively got 10x developers on my team. EXCLUSIVELY in case you missed it. We're like the Shaolin Kung Fu Masters of the 21st Century. There's an old Chinese proverb that goes as follows.
Don't let him who says it's not possible stop the one who is doing it
What makes a 10x developer?
Interestingly, it's not what you think it is. If you start out with installing Pulsar, Kafka, or MongoDB you've already lost. The difference between a 10x developer and mediocrity is not in the skillset, it's in the mind. A 10x developer once confronted with a problem will ask itself the following question ...
What is the simplest possible thing that solves this problem?
Starting out by adding complexity to your "solution" beyond that which is necessary, implies you've already lost. At Aista we've almost turned this into a religion, implying we will never allow anybody else to add complexity beyond the bare minimum needed to solve the problem. In fact, simplicity is arguably our product. With our product, I could create a new CRM system every single day, 7 days of the week, 52 weeks per year if you asked me to.
In case you're wondering, I've worked on teams with 5 developers, who's task it was to create CRM systems. Once we never even succeeded, and the project was cancelled after 2 years of development. Needless to say of course, but I was not in charge of that project ...
If you want to become a 10x developer, your primary question should be; "What is the simplest possible thing that works?" Well, if your app is data driven, I already know the answer to that question. In fact, it's our product, and why I could create a new CRM system in just a single day if called upon. Check it out below if you wish.
We're here to create 10x developers, manufacture them at pure will, like grapes during season. If you want to become a 10x developer, click the link above, play around with the thing, for then to come back again and tell me that you still don't believe in 10x developers.
At Aista we believe in Magic, and therefor Magic believes in us
Top comments (84)
Some issues with the 10x developer myth:
The one thing I agree with is the motto
I've answered another permutation of this concern in another comment here ...
You answered the one about some programmers being much better than others, which is my point number 4 : it's a tautology valid in every field.
Usually though great things are done by normal people.
The roman empire wasn't the best because some soldiers individually were 10 times better than their barbaric opponent. If it had to rely on that, it wouldn't have survived for almost 2000 years (including Bysanthium).
That's true, but 10x developers also have an ability to (often) pull others around them up, by coaching and tutoring those they work with ...
Resulting in that everybody becomes better as individuals, resulting again in that the team as a whole delivers more!
But then they are mostly great teachers instead of abnormally good developers. Which is good, I wrote blog posts here because I try to be a better teacher.
The best teachers are (often) the best doers - Not always, but often enough to be a general pattern ... ^_^
On one hand you need to know your job to teach it well.
On the other hand good pedagogy is a skill on its own,
that people with great technical skills may be bad at or simply uninterested at learning.
Look at Linus Torvalds.
Arguably a great programmer and a terrible teacher,
unless the rules of pedagogy changed
and insulting people publicly by email when they do it wrong is now the way to go.
I said mostly - Thank you for reminding me though. Now go read some of the comments here proclaiming that "the best software developers are humble and meek" ... ;)
So, just creating debate and controversy to promote your business I suspect right? This is just a marketing scheme, I'm guessing most of what you said is bullshit or at least exagerated am I correct?
I have to say this post made me really uninterested in your project and I think most people will feel this way too. I don't think it's the best strategy (I might be wrong though...) to promote a product. I feel your ego is blinding you a bit mate!
Good luck, I hope you find a bit of humility!
I'm not really sure about how to respond to this? Did you have a question or a comment somehow providing further insight into the subject? Or you just out to bash others for writing their opinions ...?
Or maybe you're one of "the other guy's communist friends" who believes in that all business is ethically and morally wrong, and that we should eat only fruit falling from trees, to prevent "additional suffering unto semi-sentient beings" ...?
Humility is overrated mate ... :/
Don't believe me, read some of the other comments here ...
The first paragraph was probably not expressed correctly but is a legit question. The second paragraph is just my opinion which I'm allowed to give as you posted this publicly. Not bashing your opinion, just adding mine
I'm pretty sure you expected some comments like mine...
EDIT: I don't think this post is just an opinion, it's a statement on how cool you, your colleagues and your business are and how not cool non-10x developers are... which is kinda toxic. And I really don't agree with it, that's all.
OK, as to the first paragraph; YES! I wish more people were interested in deep and profound articles, allowing us to market our stuff based upon neutral and factual information. Unfortunately the world has grown so shallow that it's impossible to get attention unless you either stir the pot, or show your boobs. I have no boobs, hence here we are ...
As to the second paragraph? I can't remember it, however I suspect the above probably applies in equal quantities to that too ...
Okay, fair enough. I can agree with this. It's a shame... is it working though (asking out of curiosity)?
It's working'ish, but it's exhausting, because every opinionated schmuck without wisdom to understand why I write the way I do comes popping out of the woodwork to attack you for "blaspheming towards his 'favourite deity of choice'" ... :/
This ranges from Karl Marx in one end to OOP and Entity Framework in the other end - But hey, I'm not complaining, I kind of asked for it, right ...? :/
Thanks for answering sincerely, I apreciate that!
I guess it is exhausting, wouldn't want to be in your place if I'm honest.
It's hard work, but at least it's work, and it provides for the family :)
However, 80+ hours per week, wearing 50+ hats, for 14 months and counting is challenging sometimes ...
I can believe that, at least your family is sorted and well (I hope)! why the hats though?
As the CEO of a startup you have to do everything ranging from running the company, hiring people, tutoring, coding and washing the toilet mate ... :/
Seems fair and necesary, at least in the begining... don't have experience being a CEO, but have very close contact with many and I know the struggles. Can be worth it in the end though
I missed the communist point, I don't think politics have anything to do here. I don't give a crap what you eat, but if you show us your d*ck we will comment on it...
I do not only think that, I know it is not ethical or moral in most cases, which as you stated in the other response it's probably the only way in the current state of society, but that doesn't mean it's correct. It's a shame but it is how it is
Edited - I've exclusively built my company upon "serving the underserved" (Open Source) - I beg to differ ... ;)
Lol, of course we do! We meet every 2 hours without exception xD you can join if you want
Hahahaha :D
Now I feel sorry that I edited my original comment :D
That's a good reason and I can stand by it. But the execution and marketing are quite extreme as we mentioned in other comments, though probably necesary. Not that I agree or support it, but at least I understand the reason behind it now!
<3
Yaiks, my answer makes no sense now!
It can be our secret ;)
A secret club ... :D
shh, they will know it exists, remember the first rule of the club! xD
Hahaha, WHAT club ...? :D
I don't know you! Who are you?
Did you have anything to contribute with? Maybe an article, or a question? Maybe some enlightening comment at the very least ...?
Every single thing I wrote about was verified by other people commenting. Besides from that, we've got nothing to talk about ...
I feel you misunderstood what the term "10x developer" implies: one exceptional developer handling the work of 10 average developers - and in doing so, they can have no time to share knowledge, document, build teams, communicate and do all the stuff that distinguishes advanced development from advanced programming, ultimately delivering less than a 1x exceptional developer.
I'm a 10x developer, and that's 10% of my job. My primary job is being the CEO of the company, running in meetings, organising things, helping out my team members, talking with partners and clients, etc - Still I'm the top contributor to GitHub in the island of Cyprus (by far!). Respectfully, but you're wrong. I'm doing all of the above, plus more, in addition to being a 10x developer. In fact, I'm probably spending less than 20% of my time coding, yet still in that 20% I get to deliver 10x more value than the average software developer gets to do with 100% of his time.
Now of course, since the average software developer starts out most problems with the question; "How complex can I possibly implement this thing" this is probably not such a strange thing ...
Your beliefs about the average software developer betrays your arrogance and merely prove my point.
I once heard a story about two guys back in the 1980s who rewrote Unix in its entirety in a weekend. Linus Torvalds created Git in 10 months. Could you rewrite Unix in a weekend, or create Git in 10 months? Your arrogance betrays you my friend.
Just because you can't do something doesn't imply others can't do it. This was the purpose of the archer image in the middle of the post ...
You still misunderstand (that's probably the bad communication skills that I mentioned). I'm not saying it would be impossible to get that level of coding output - just that the result is not as much value as you believe it is. So you overvalue your own contribution and undervalue everyone else's, while comparing yourself to the likes of Linus Torvalds, Dennis Ritchie, Fabrice Bellard or John Carmack. I think it's clear who between us two is arrogant and who isnt.
What did I misunderstand? You mentioned that the result of the group as a whole was important, and I explained how 10x devs increases the group's ability to deliver as a whole, due to teaching their skills to others, etc - How is that bad communication skills? Besides, what does my communication skills have to do with things? Have you heard of ad hominem ...?
Where did I do that? Yet again, ad hominem. Besides, even if I did, so what? Are these people like Jesus, as in the "sole son of God" or something? Whom we can never expect to be able to achieve on pair with? I started coding when I was 8 years old, I am 48 years old now. No offence, but if you were more interested in learning from those having gone the path before you you'd might prosper slightly more - Just sayin' ... :/
Besides, you realise that your mindset not only prohibits you from growing, but is also toxic in regards to your employer's ability to attract skilled workers?
Maybe if you were less jealous of those better than you, and more eager to learn from them, you'd become one of us sometime in the future ...? ;)
I'm not jealous of you, but that you would think that is just another sign that you are very probably actually a "10x developer", but still fail to understand the original meaning of the term.
I too started coding when I was 8 - and I'm 45 years old now. Still, I don't want to become one of "you" in the future. All that I hope for every day is to become a better developer than I was the day before. And that growth is much more important to me than being able to boast about the numbers of commits or LOCs I have contributed.
It's not about LOC, if you had read the article you would understand that, since I am making that fact very clear.
OK, so how do you want the world to look like? Communism utopia where we're all equals in all regards? Race to bottom where we need to abandon walking because some of us are in wheel chairs, and we don't want to hurt their egos?
There are people in this world that can do amazing things, one of whom was linked into my article with a picture. I cannot do those things, but I can still appreciate that some can, and I enjoy the fact that such people exists.
OK, no further explanation required ... :D
I think the pill would be easier to swallow if you didn’t brag about your accomplishments so much.
I worked with a guy who, from the first hour, bragged about how good he was (10x if you asked him), his amazing tools, questioned our use of Linux (“people will use Linux? Why?”), wanted to take over my role as lead dev etc. Cocky as hell and I couldn’t see myself spending another hour next to him. The next day he quit cos he didn’t want to be a mere pawn. Thanks for that.
Vibes I get from your posts remind me of him. That’s too bad cos you have interesting things to share but they’re overshadowed by cockiness.
Just be a quiet Nx developer and people that work with you will know what to replace N with, be it 10, 3 or 8.
That being said, I agree we should keep things simple and not use techs just because we can/want.
Might be. I'm not (only) bragging about my accomplishments though ...
Thank you. I wrote the article to stir up debate. Besides, my next article is arguably its punchline. In it I will barely mention myself ...
Thank you :)
You seem to have no idea about Marx communism or wheel chair users' egos. First, the communist utopia I envision is not a race to bottom, but just bottom line secured so everyone has the security not to fall below to aim above that. The most genius developers I ever met were actually rather meek than boastful.
I'm not saying people cannot accomplish amazing feats, I've witnessed some of these myself, for example as antfu and patak created vitest in the course of ~2 months (and inspired a lot of other developers to join their project so that it could prosper even more). They don't see themselves as 10x developers, but they inspired more than 10 developers each. To me, that is worth more than 10 times more commits on github.
Hahahaha :D
Have a nice day mate ... ^_^
Psst, don't bother to explain it to me, I literally couldn't care less ... ;)
Got to be honest I've never known a single developer ask how complex they can implement something. I've worked with every level of developer from apprentice to staff senior, even CEO.
Of course you're going to believe you have and will only hire the greatest devs out there, you've got to justify yourself hiring them and paying their salaries
The greatest devs never asks what their salary will become. They ask you about the product and the vision. If they believe in the vision, they'll work for free until you've got money to pay them ...
I partially agree with you on that one. Devs working for free is obviously just a manager's wet dream, we all have to pay the bills. However, I believe that great developers are in it rather for the interesting challenges and the meaning of their work than the other benefits. I know I am, as long as I don't have to worry about money, which luckily is the case.
Do your developers get taken on with no salary and a promise then? Or do they work in return for a salary that allows them to eat and keep a roof over their (and maybe their family's) heads?
I agree if a dev agrees with the vision and feels they are contributing to that vision, then so long as they also feel that contribution is appreciated they will take a lot and fight through the bad times, but they will grow wary if they don't feel that appreciation or compensation in some way.
I worked on Magic for free for a decade. I pay my crew today though, but it wouldn't even exist without that initial investment by me, for reasons I explain in my latest article
Working on your own project for free is a little different to others working on your project for free, especially if it is their main occupation
It was an exaggeration, but the point is still valid. A software developer who starts out the interview with asking about salary, is about as valuable as sand in the machine ...
And we're back to disagreement. If developers wants to make sure that they won't have to think more about money then they do about code on their new job, that's A-OK in my book. It also doesn't automatically follow that they are only in for the money if they ask about it first.
We ask the most important questions first. If the first question is how much money will I be making, it shows the priorities of the individual ...
Or you first want to get the bottom line out of the way, so you can either stop wasting your time with an interview for a company that wants you to think about money issues rather than about code or otherwise get to the interesting part.
I fundamentally disagree, but that's OK, we don't need to agree on everything ...
I don't apply for apply to jobs advertised without a salary, and I find even then the first question a recruiter asks is "what is your salary expectation?" and later on in the process if all is going well "what's the minimum they need to offer for me to be able to provisionally accept any offer I receive on your behalf".
Doesn't matter how much you believe in the vision if you can't put food on the table, or a roof over your head...more importantly if you can't do these things for your family. Any one in the real world understands that, belief in the vision or not.
And no, other than the two points money is required for above I do not do this job for the money.
I worked for free on Magic for a decade. If you don't agree with me, that's perfectly fine, but don't apply for a job with us unless you do agree ... ;)
Don't worry, after reading a few of your articles I wouldn't want to :D
Hehe :D
Mission accomplished ;)
you know what I see here?I do not see a 10x developer. I do not want to dought the ability and effectiveness of the developer.
but in the CRM project you describe, I see that this is a typical 1/10 development project. Let me guess, in the project you did not even have clear defined requirements. of cause, developers, as they need a job, will just work on that project, and argue, and do stuff, just not very directed. what is likely not even the developers fault.
?
Kind of. I write about it in my waterfall article ...
Reading the first couple of paragraphs I thought you were paid by kilograms of code 😂😂😂
Hahahaha :D
… by becoming an assembly line worker?
Yup ^_^
Nothing wrong in that. Andy Warhol was an "assembly line worker". He created Marilyn Monroe in 2 minutes. Leonardo DaVinci wasn't even able to finish Mona Lisa in 13 years, and died before the painting was finished. Then compare Mona Lisa to Marilyn Monroe ignoring the monetary value, and come and tell me Mona Lisa is not a piece of garbage compared to Marilyn Monroe ...
I'd rather be an assembly line worker creating brilliance every 2 minutes, than a "creative genius" spending 13 years on creating garbage ... :/
You'd be creating the same brilliance every 2 minutes.
Copying files is a solved problem in information technology.
I beg to differ mate. Click "Follow" on my profile, and I'll prove you wrong in my next article ... ;)
FYI: Using Andy Warhol in this context could backfire in so many ways…
80% of software developers in Silicon Valley may be autistic according to a study I saw almost a decade ago. Nothing wrong with being on the spectrum. I'm arguably there myself ... :)
Well, if that is true you are well on your way to further antagonising the non-ASD population; something the ASD community, as far as I can tell, isn't interested in. One could say that you're weaponizing neural-configuration which doesn't really benefit anyone.
What can I say? "He started" ...? :D
Where's your ambition? Don't you want to be an 11x developer?
Hahahaha :D
I'm trying mate, I'm trying ^_^
Humility.
10x ego much? :D
Normally you'd be right, if it wasn't for that I bring forth my team mates too, in addition to that we've created a tool that allows us to churn out 10x developers almost the same way an assembly line churns out its stuff. However, I laughed :D
I'm going to make 15 commits every 10ms until github blocks me, does that make me a 100x developer?
A guy did that actually to beat my record at GitHub for Cyprus. I think he created a bot that committed 1,500 times per day and let it run every day until he had 28,000 commits in total. I probably wouldn't hire him myself, but you're of course free to do so if you wish ... ^_^
Great, so we agree that the number of commits says absolutely jackshit about whether you're a good developer or not.
My answer
You didnt say lines of code, you said commits. You cannot use lines of code as a pure metric either though. You still have to look at what lines of codes have changed. I can change a lot of code that introduce a huge amount of bugs into the code, that does not make me a good productive developer.
When I get started on an existing project I use the loc metric to find out which people to talk to. The people who changed the most lines of code usually have the best overview of the project. That still does not mean they're good developers though.
Seriously I am a 20x developer.
So in conclusion, X10 developpers produce /10 products 😁!
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