A big part of it is being wise about what code should not be written. Either the KISS principle or just being very conscious about costs and benefits.
Ask HN: How can I become a 10X engineer?
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a 10X engineer?
#12You become a 10X engineer when you realize that the 10X engineer really doesn't exist. It's just a term that stack rankers love to use to defend their need to stack rank. Nothing but big egos. You don't need that noise.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a 10X engineer?
#13Make 10 other people 2X as productive!
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a 10X engineer?
#14Realize your role is to make the business more money, productive and/or efficient. Engineers that spend their time on problems that matter are the ones that are decidedly 10x. Not wasting time on issues that don't matter is more critical than anything. So many super intelligent people I have met spend their time on issues that won't advance the business, and doing so makes you average instead of exceptional.
If you want to be exceptional, worry about what you need to produce to make the business better, not what is important to you. That makes you more valuable than other engineers and makes you a 10x engineer. At least this is my experience and hence opinion.
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a 10X engineer?
#15Tackle the hardest problems and solve them.
or
Attach yourself to the areas that have the highest business impact and produce results...
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a 10X engineer?
#16just some thoughts Obviously step 1) is mastering all the fundamentals of CS. Once you know all the fundamentals of CS, master your particular stack so deeply that you can use them at will like a toolbox for any situation that presents itself. try to learn as many proglamgs as possible as they all teach you different ways of thinking. Assuming you have a decent handle on more advanced ds+a I would say if you want to…
*proglangs
Re: Ask HN: How can I become a 10X engineer?
#17I met three 10X engineers in my life. They started early and therefore got a lot of practice in by the time they went to college (both professionally and with side projects).
You can watch a video from one of them here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18214738