There are tons of companies with thousands and thousands of engineers who could easily make do with 100-1000 engineers if they were willing to attract and retain top talent.
> And as an interviewer, it is really hard to identify who is 10x and who is not.
That's definitely true, but top companies manage to do it. And when they make a mistake, they rectify it.
Team sports still pay to attract top performers. The best players can be a force multiplier for everyone.
I know many programmers from FB, Google, Amazon, Apple. There is no way they are 10 or even 2x. Some of them I worked with too, so I know their work. Others are just friends, we discuss technology all the time.
> Team sports still pay to attract top performers. The best players can be a force multiplier for everyone.
You are right team sports do pay a lot of money for top talent. Unfortunately, my experience with 10x programmers, as a teammate and as a manager, has always been negative. Most of them barely produce more than average programmer on long run but demotivate entire team or department by their arrogance, talking down, complaining, rudeness.
3 average programmers who understand your code adds a lot of redundancy.
And as an interviewer, it is really hard to identify who is 10x and who is not. But very easy to tell who has enough knowledge and pleasant personality. Programming in most companies is team sports, not a marathon.