Re:A look at the 10x paradigm
by wting on Monday July 04, 2016 @02:34PM
(#12032233)
10x is a measure of impact relative to others. From that definition, I have no doubt it exists. There's a couple ways to find 10x'ers:
# A person that does things no one else can.
A problem requires calculating taxes for an invoice. Someone who computes this programmatically is better than a person who hand calculates everything.
A problem requires calculating the area under the curve. Someone who uses calculus is better than someone who only knows algebra and geometry.
A problem requires charging a user's credit card once on checkout. Someone who understands idempotent operations is infinitely better. (I was charged 3 times for a single purchase yesterday, and now disputing with the merchant.)
# A person that grows the people around them.
A person growing teammates to 2x or 3x their previously level has a cumulative 10x impact.
This can be teaching how to approach problems, choose the right abstractions, make engineering tradeoffs, manage risk, write robust code that is easily testable, etc.
# A person that makes others more efficient.
If the average dev waits 1 hr for a build, and someone reduces that to 5 minutes then they have saved: x devs * y builds / day * 55 min
This has indirect effects such as maintaining flow state, minimizing context switching, etc.
# A person that brings down the teammates.
A dev that builds fast enough (5x), but grows tech debt such that the rest of the team operates at 0.5x. By definition they are a 10x relative to their teammates. :P
# A person that does things no one else can.
A problem requires calculating taxes for an invoice. Someone who computes this programmatically is better than a person who hand calculates everything.
A problem requires calculating the area under the curve. Someone who uses calculus is better than someone who only knows algebra and geometry.
A problem requires charging a user's credit card once on checkout. Someone who understands idempotent operations is infinitely better. (I was charged 3 times for a single purchase yesterday, and now disputing with the merchant.)
# A person that grows the people around them.
A person growing teammates to 2x or 3x their previously level has a cumulative 10x impact.
This can be teaching how to approach problems, choose the right abstractions, make engineering tradeoffs, manage risk, write robust code that is easily testable, etc.
# A person that makes others more efficient.
If the average dev waits 1 hr for a build, and someone reduces that to 5 minutes then they have saved: x devs * y builds / day * 55 min
This has indirect effects such as maintaining flow state, minimizing context switching, etc.
# A person that brings down the teammates.
A dev that builds fast enough (5x), but grows tech debt such that the rest of the team operates at 0.5x. By definition they are a 10x relative to their teammates. :P