Stop saying 10x developer
Blog post from Earthly
The article critically examines the myth of the "10x developer," a concept that suggests some developers are ten times more productive than their peers. Drawing on historical research and modern analogies like LeetCode competitions, the text argues that while significant skill disparities exist among developers, these do not always translate into proportional productivity gains in real-world settings. It highlights the multifaceted nature of software development, likening it to a modern pentathlon requiring various skills rather than a single-track event. The piece challenges the oversimplification of developer skills into a singular metric and advocates for recognizing expertise and specialization in different domains, emphasizing that terminology matters when discussing talent and skills in the tech industry.