Rule 5 is "there's no such thing as 10X engineers". Then to back it up, some faux data about Marketers is given? This was weak, IMO.
The reality is that there are 10x engineers. They likely won't come work for you though.
The reality is that there are 10x engineers. They likely won't come work for you though.
After all, a 10x engineer is still only 1x when it comes to adding new functionality to your CRUD app.
However, when you need a scalable recommendation system built in a weekend, that works on a sharded database, uses clever math to run with limited resources, and fits processing into an overnight cron job, and just works (without breaking down every few days over the next couple months), that's when the "10x" guy or girl is your only choice.
"There is no such thing as sustained, responsible 10x engineering after one achieves market fit." (How's that for sufficiently caveating?)
It's easy to do 10x-engineering at an early stage, but it gets progressively more difficult as products/services emerge. And as those products & services are iterated upon to find market fit, sustainability and flexibility become more important.
If every 10x-engineer also took the hippocratic oath, then we would be on to something.