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Discussion on: To 10x-engineer or not, that is the question

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finnhvman profile image
Bence Szabo

Thank you for this. I feel like a lot of people are just having a knee-jerk reaction to this, trying to completely destroy that thread and even the person who tweeted it. I don't see many people taking the time to think about this.

I think the term 10x engineer is not a good one. It has a very strong implication of someone worths 10 times more than someone other. This thought doesn't help any team or any organization. There used to be the 'rockstar', 'ninja', etc. expressions, they just sounded stupid I guess. Ideally I think a 10x engineer is a Senior engineer, but nowadays it's pretty easy to nab a senior title, so I guess the industry is inventing new ones?

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lilianaziolek profile image
Lili Z

Thanks! You're probably right that the implication "someone worth 10x as much" is why many people react in such an intense manner, and indeed the term is not the most fortunate one, and I'd also much prefer if some other catchy term came up. But it is out there, whether we like it or not - so I'm thinking maybe rather than trying to silence people like the chap on Twitter, or keep talking how there are no 10x/ninja/rockstar developers, it would serve us better to discuss what an actual 10x/rockstar/ninja (or whatever the term) developer would look like - because it sure as hell has nothing to do with having a dark theme in your IDE.

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finnhvman profile image
Bence Szabo

I don't mind people discussing it, but it's hard to come up with some checklist for a 10x engineer. And don't we all already know who are these people based on our experiences?

Anyways, here's a related post: dev.to/turnerj/the-10-points-that-...

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lilianaziolek profile image
Lili Z

Yes, I saw that thread, and that is exactly what I'd like to see more of, as well as the great post from Emma W very recently (101 tips).
I do think that we can always improve, and I like when this topic comes up because there are always things we maybe forgot or normally don't think about. I like having goals and things to aspire to, and grow, and improve myself - because there is always more.
Just FFS don't put "dark theme" as one of the checkboxes 🤣