In Praise of “Normal” Engineers

I have run into any number of these incredible beings over the course of my career. I think this is what explains the curious durability of the “10x engineer” meme. It may be based on flimsy, shoddy research, and the claims people have made to defend it have often been risible (e.g. “10x engineers have dark backgrounds, are rarely seen doing UI work, are poor mentors and interviewers”), or blatantly double down on stereotypes (“we look for young dudes in hoodies that remind us of Mark Zuckerberg”). But damn if it doesn’t resonate with experience. It just feels true.

The problem is not the idea that there are engineers who are 10x as productive as other engineers. I don’t have a problem with this statement; in fact, that much seems self-evidently true. The problems I do have are twofold.

Source: In Praise of “Normal” Engineers – charity.wtf