News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive. Parent comment

Re:AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive by mgfist on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @11:13AM (#44799080)
All of this is hard to quantify. How much better than the average engineer is John Carmack, or Rob Pike or Linus? I consider myself average-ish and I don't think there's any world in which I could do what those guys did no matter how much time you gave me (especially without the hindsight knowledge of the creations). So I'd say they're all infinitely better than me.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive by coffeebeqn on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @12:11PM (#44799915)
And how much better are they than your average engineer when plopped into a mediocre organization where they aren’t the political and technical top dog? I would guess they would all quit within a week.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive by bigfishrunning on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @01:05PM (#44800797)
Good engineers don't stay in mediocre organizations, mediocre ones do. Do you think these "top dogs" were at the top of their game from day one? They all learned, just like everyone else; talent just gave them a higher ceiling.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @11:20AM (#44799167)
I guess that makes Newton a 10x scientist. Really puts in perspective how utterly unrealistic it is to be looking to hire exclusively 10x programmers - the true 10x'ers are legends, not just regular devs who type a bit faster.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive by dolebirchwood on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @12:13PM (#44799956)
It would be more sensible if the "10x" moniker was dropped altogether, and we just went back to calling these people what they've always been: "geniuses". Then there might be more realistic expectations of only finding them among 1% of the population.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive by zepolen on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @01:11PM (#44800903)
Newton was a 1000x
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive by jirach08 on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @04:44PM (#44804015)
I'd argue he was 9.81x
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:AI is not Making Engineers 10x as Productive by SketchySeaBeast on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @05:09PM (#44804334)
I think it's more important to measure his changing contribution as a function of time.
[ Parent | on HN ]