Comment by mirceal | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mirceal | Hacker News Reader

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this aligns with the hypothesis that some people have that a handful of people do most of the work (and the others are the "worst" performers").

What this misses, is that in any highly functioning teams everyone is important and in order for the "rockstar" to be the "rockstar" they need people to help keep the machines running and to support them. This is usually why a team that has a mix of both veterans and newbies works so well. Everyone can operate at their own level while learning and growing. Is the veteran a 10x when compared to a newbie? If you make up some metrics, maybe, but the veteran cannot do meaningful work without the newbs (think rock concert without all the supporting crew. could any band do their own concerts without all the supporting crew?)

If a "veteran" cannot do meaningful work without the newbs, either that "veteran" is not very good or your processes are too manual.

The best programmers I worked with were not "rockstars", but "icebreakers" -- they would solve the hardest problems and leave the clear path for others. For example, they might solve a sporadic memory leak in a few hours, and thus save a less experienced team member at least a week of effort.

They were "10x" in the sense that any team they were on would get 10x better because everyone does more.

yeah. talking about "rockstars" and "newbs" is probably not helpful. but... the veteran not only can do what the newbies are doing, they can do it better and faster. The point is that in having the newbs do that, the veteran's time is better used on harder / more open ended problems.

to use an analogy, if we are building a sewer line, the veteran knows how to dig as he's done it before and it represents no challenge to them. Not only that but they have better technique and stamina. Now, someone has to also decide where the line goes and organize the workers. So the veteran's time is best used figuring out where the line should go and coordinating, not digging, but his work is enabled by the people that do all the "actual" work

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