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Tired: 10x Developers. Wired: 10x ENVIRONMENTS.

The mythological 10x developer, seen here in its natural habitat.
image: the mythological 10x developer, caught in its natural habitat.

A 10x developer thread blew up on Twitter over the weekend. A startup/disrupter posted their tips on how to find the mythological 10x engineer and what massive rewards your organization will reap by having one.

Unfortunately, their "tips" only amounted to the perpetuation of a very different type of engineer: one who can't mentor, can't be bothered to attend a meeting, knows only code (to the detriment of all other soft skills), and will insist on doing things the right way...aka their way.

In short, it was a list of attributes that described a toxic developer.

After having slung code for two decades...and am now charged with leading my own team of developers...here is the harsh truth of the matter:

If you want to build a team of highly productive developers, focus on building a 10x environment.


  • Build knowledge sharing into your process, so your team is actively invested in educating (read: mentoring) each other in how to better collaborate/solve problems together. Think: code reviews, retrospectives, team-led showcases, etc.
  • Use meetings judiciously. What's the agenda? Who are all these people on the invite? Can these questions be resolved in a quick email?
  • Drop the "methodology theater." If your team agrees to Scrum, then do it. Saying you're "Agile" while blindly ignoring the rules of the road only serves to disabuse your team further.
  • If you "get what you measure", then start measuring healthy habits. For example, what percentage of your team's work went over 40 hours last week? How many weeks in a row has your team been able to avoid having to work on the weekend?

Yes, 10x developers exist. I've worked with many. And while not all are a challenge to manage in a team, most are. They can be both equally gifted and frustrating, and any short-term gains you may realize will most certainly become liabilities in the long run. Our energy is better spent taking the talented and creative people we have and help them make the leap to 10x by removing the daily barriers of the foolish modern work environment -- an environment which, left untouched, will surely transform them into a demotivated mess.
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