You don’t even need to go to the level of a Bellard or Carmack to recognize the existence of 10x engineers. This pushback seems to derive from the egocentric assumption that 10x means “Ten times better than me.”

If we flip this around, does anyone doubt the existence of 1/10x engineers? I’m not referring to low end outliers who clearly can’t code. But I f you think through all the engineers you have known who have actually been employed and worked in the field, is there a 10x spread between the best and the mediocre-at-best?

Lots of folks are familiar with the Dunning-Krueger effect for what it says about the perspective of those with less experience/skill. However, it also postulates that people with more experience/skill also see the world incorrectly — from the other direction. They are prone to assume that most people are at least as skilled as they are.

This pushback against the notion of a 10x engineer seems like the perfect union of Impostor Syndrome meets Dunning-Krueger. We worry that we’re near the bottom of the curve due to our own insecurities while being partly blinded to the deltas in skill both above us and below us.

Edit: Clarified that I was interpreting 10x as highest to low-average, not highest to lowest outlier.