Ask HN: Are “superstar programmers” more independently-minded?
And if so, why would companies want to hire them?
At the end of the day I believe the common threads of these type of people are experience, motivation, and direction. For reference, I started my full time career as a software engineer in 2012 and worked my way from SE to Senior Engineering Manager, I have come in to contact with a lot of software engineers.
There is nothing magical about highly effective software engineers. They are usually * Experienced something like 5 - 8 years * Good at self improvement * Focused in one area and one set of tools * Hard workers * Motivated, driven by something inside themselves to code * They are given clear goals and outcomes
Some of the highly effective engineers I've worked with are highly independent and difficult to work with, some have been kind team players, some have been always on the cutting edge and some have gotten really good with one tool and never wanted to change. People who are good at things are still just people and come in all shapes and sizes and personalities.
It's all about how you can spin things to improve the optics and your reputation.
That one doesn't get enough credit for success.
Some organizations are able to accommodate people like this effectively, but the organization has to be set up for that.
EDIT: The only other engineer that I would consider a “superstar” that I have encountered was nowhere near as prolific as the person above, but had an ability to make any project go smoothly. He was technically excellent, but also had the soft skills to help people converge on good solutions and motivate people to contribute. So, N=2.
I don't doubt there are some 10x programmers that are able to pump out features that check off every box that biz dev wants while simultaneously creating code that is understandable and supportable by the rest of the team.
But for every 10x programmer that does this there are many more programmers that are able to pump out features that check off every box that biz dev wants but are creating code that is only understandable to them using their preferred abstractions/libraries/variable naming conventions/etc and unintentionally (or sometimes intentionally) only supportable by them.
This makes them look super productive and 10x-y versus their team members but leads to long term resentment amongst team members and high bus factor loads for the company on that individual that are not apparent to biz dev.
Good managers know they need to hire good team members, not just people who are good at coding by themselves.
The real 10Xer types are those who can work together with the team, set aside their own personal ideas (if they’re different than what the team has decided), and coordinate to get things shipped.
If we're talking about code monkeys, devs who just take in requirements and churn out code, then no, there are no 10x code monkeys. At best the senior devs are like 3x better.
If we're talking about developers that are also planners and trailblazers, devs that understand the business needs, and are constantly thinking about how to leverage their own tech knowledge and the company's assets to get maximum business value for minimum effort, then yeah there's definitely 10x engineers. Arguably there are even 10000x engineers (thinking about those startup entrepreneurs that created working prototype apps that grew into multi-million dollar businesses)
It works like this. Before you write a single line of code build the entire application in your head. Visualize as best as you can how the code looks, the function names the text on the screen and go to sleep maybe do this over a few days and the next time you are at your computer the code will just write itself at 10x speed.
For famous personalities, for example, the prestige and PR of the name alone is sometimes enough to prompt a hire.
I've often thought the best programmers mostly do it as a hobby, instead of imparting their skills to a company where what they've programmed is discarded within a week and has lost its value quickly.
On the other hand, there are hobbyist coders who impart their skills to a side project / SaaS product that they /fully control/ and the code won't be discarded a week later. The value remains.