A 10x developer or a 10x environment

This week’s briefer:

• Do you have specific examples?

• Architecture is everyone's business

• The Engineering Room: Team Topologies

Time and again I see the 10x engineer idea going around. It’s broadly the concept of an engineer who produces, at least, 10x more than an average developer, normally because of supreme skills or talent. Many companies hunt aggressively for these types of engineers, creating elaborate processes to be able to detect them or trying to poach them from each other. At the same time, we can find the marketing ruse of “be a 10^10 developer with these 10 tips”.

Since I'm a basketball aficionado, let's go with a basketball metaphor: what are the odds of making it to the NBA? The internet seems to suggest that only a 0.03% of people pursuing a basketball career will get there. Let's not forget that, to even think of pursuing such a career, you probably have to have won the genetic lottery in some area related to the sport.

The irony is that lots of software companies want to hire only Jordans and Lebrons, their entire process is catered around this. On top of it, to find top talent we first need to define what that looks like to us and devise tests that attempt to filter out the non Jordanesque developers.

Advertising yourself as a 10x dev or attempting to be one works, there are strong incentives for somebody to do so: substantial salaries, the recognition of having worked in a mega tech company. For a company hiring a FANG developer, there's the “seal of approval”, verifying they passed an arduous process and that they potentially know what they're doing. There's even a market around how to get into one of these mega companies or wannabe FANG startups. It's not about being a 10x engineer or the best talent, it's about passing an arbitrary bar.

Still, it makes sense that there are many skills that could be beneficial for a software developer and could help differentiate them, but skills are always learnable if there’s a growth mindset and the company encourages growth. Even within those beneficial skills, many are not even about algorithms or data structures. I’m also a big fan of not only looking at years of experience, instead looking at density of experience.

Rather than focusing on 10x developers, I believe it's better to embrace that most of us are just normal people and that normal people can achieve great things. In fact, I'd argue that most things aren't done by the so-called geniuses, but by ordinary people.

Could you imagine what the industry would look like if instead of talking about 10x engineers, we’d be talking about 10x environments? Environments focused around humans, collaboration, learning, growth, etc. I’m willing to bet that a company that strives to co-create a “10x environment” will generally outperform a similar company that only wants 10x people. Not only that, the hiring process can be centred more around having the qualities to grow, learn, collaborate… instead of on knowing all the algorithms for an interview like an exam.

The issue is that, most likely, hiring this magical 10x developers is easier for the company, it's less effort, they don't need to change their systems, habits, or incentives. Another issue is that it's actually a challenge to create a good environment, and the challenge is not only specific to software, it's a human one.