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Comment by FrankyHollywood | Hacker News Reader

"Please stop thinking there are 10x programmers"

I don't really agree, since I consider myself a 10x engineer.

I have countless of examples of guys struggling for 2 months on some project. They get stuck, ask for help and I look at it and build it from scratch in a week.

It's not I'm typing faster, it's more about choosing the right architecture and libraries. You can save insane amounts of time by making the right descisions.

Besides the overall architecture descisions there are a lot of small day to day choices to make. If this value is not valid, do I throw an exception, or silently log something?

In both the small and big design descisions there is always a tradeof. Talent and (years of) experience makes that these descisions come from intuition, which can make you a 10x developer.

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> I have countless of examples of guys struggling for 2 months on some project. They get stuck, ask for help and I look at it and build it from scratch in a week.

Are you a 10x engineer or are they 0.1x engineers and how do you differentiate the two?

Good question, perhaps I'm still dreaming and wake up tomorrow searching for coconuts on the beach...

The only thing I know is I worked on many projects at many companies for the last 15 years. This gives some confidence :)

I have countless of examples of guys struggling for 2 months on some project. They get stuck, ask for help and I look at it and build it from scratch in a week.

Have you ever wondered why the engineers don't come and ask your advice before they waste a couple of months?

I'd much rather be known as an approachable and helpful engineer who juniors can ask for advice, even if it means I'll never be known as a 10X engineer.

Some do, they are curious, and I can teach them a lot. At this very moment I have a junior engineer in my team. He is eager to learn and we do a lot of peer programming which benefits us both (having to explain why choosing some solution is even harder than making it 'by intuition'.

But the ones who don't are more difficult for me. I think some might be shy or unaware things can go better. The most trouble I have is with the really stuborn who don't want to learn, and think they know it all.

I try to avoid these engineers as much as possible, by hiring the ones I think are eager and willing to learn.

"hiring the ones I think are eager and willing to learn"

Where do you draw the line?

How often can a junior approach you before you grow tired of them constantly asking you for help/guidance?

> How often can a junior approach you before you grow tired of them constantly asking you for help/guidance?

Personally, it would depend on if they're learning from my guidance or not: if they keep coming back with the same problems I'd get frustrated that they (seemingly) weren't attempting to learn or improve. On the other hand, it they usually come to me with new problems they've encountered and gotten stuck on, I don't expect it would bother me nearly as much.

Of course, IRL it'll probably be somewhere in between.

Not the OP, but I give junior engineers a lot of slack. I'm happy to spend a lot of time working with them. And you know if one keeps asking me lots if questions or looking fir guidance that's fine... maybe I need to do a better job explaining or send them off to look at something else that might be a better teaching aide.

The hardest problem with mentoring juniors is that most companies don't recognize the work put in. Still too many places judge purely on your direct work-in to work-out ratio.

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