Alan Cooper on the “10x” Programmer

There's a freedom that comes with that, we're unbound by physics - layer upon layer of abstraction make it a lost concern.

It feeds into itself, growing in power at a rate proportional to its surface.

Until that is, it collapses under its own weight. When that happens is a matter of structure, and the extent to which the developer understands what the structure is, where it should be and how it must expand to cater for new requirements.

For simple cases a single largely linear block of code will be fine.

Eventually things get more complex. You'll need to move the lower level functionality to another file and call through to its methods.

Some of the methods in these files will become so heavily parameterised - and with repeat parameters - that you might want to introduce state. Welcome to OOP.

Then with the proliferation of the files you've created you'll need to introduce a directory structure.

Then a module structure.

Then a separation of API and implementations.

Then a division across projects.

At any of these points some will falter.

Some can't even write a single class without copying a pasting massive blocks of code. Some write class after class without consideration of abstraction or structure.

Yes there are 10x developers - those who understand structure and can implement the code accordingly.

Why does this happen in software and not other industries? As I said, we're unbound by reality.

If the best of us were engineers, we would be more tightly constrained by the physical limitations of the world.

If the worst of us were engineers, they would get people killed.

“The 10x programmer is essentially a libertarian concept: That is, they do it all by themselves because they don’t recognize how much is done for them by others.”

1. Patience - I have the patience to sit through and fix a bug. Googling it, reading the source ... this is fun for me. 1x programmers give up very often and very soon. They either blame others, feel pity for themselves for not figuring it out or hate the computer for giving the wrong answer.

2. Fuck OOP - I stick to the separation between data and code. If I am forced to use OOP, I abuse the command pattern. My code is procedural for the most part. Procedural code is easier to debug .. usually, when I see a bug, I know the exact function. 1x go "wow" at this, whereas I feel like an Imposter.

3. Tools - This would probably be my biggest sin and probably where I could be a bit of a hipster. I stick to tools and libraries that make me productive.

4. News - I try to keep up with the latest news. This often helps me leverage the next best thing for increased productivity.

5. Egoless - I don't care about rewriting, throwing away and deleting code ... trying a new library. 1x programmers get attached to their babies.

6. My code is not a mess, your ideology is a mess - I've found it easier to work with absolute beginners, 0x, than "experienced" programmers who like to throw jargon around. Beginners tend to find my code easy to follow, easy to fix, easy to debug. The first instinct of the "experienced" is to rewrite it because it's not "clean" enough for them. I'd rather you look at the forest than the tree. The whole thing delivers 80% of what business users want! I've had three projects where I did in two weeks what a group 10 programmers took months and that's sad.

Things where I can imporve

1. Testing - I usually do a lot of integration testing for the critical paths.

2. Security - I always tell people to hire pen-testers but no one ever listens!

3. Documentation - My biggest weak point of all. In my defense, I choose functions names reasonably stupidly. I think it's good move to hire great documentation writers.

4. Complex Algorithms and Maths - Always good to know more! This is where I have to rely on 100x programmers to come up with a good library. I aspire to be 100x.